Chikara Kokoro: Strength of Heart
by PuppyNoelle
Summary: Kaoru is 14 and is following her father during the Bakumatsu, when she comes across a 17 year old Hitokiri Battousai, and becomes entangled in the war herself KaoruBattousai
1. Chapter 1: The First Encounter

Chikara Kokoro (Strength of Heart)  
  
by: Miss Battousai-Noelle  
  
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Disclaimer: I do not own rurouni kenshin, that i do not.  
  
MissBattousai: "Hello friends. This is my first ever pure-RK story. It is a Kaoru+Kenshin/Battousai story if you didn't know. The first several chapters are going to take place during the Bakumatsu, then later on i'll shift the story right to where the anime/manga begins, with a few altercations of course. (If you would like to know exactly what the altercations will be, then you'll have to be patient and wait for later chapters. ^-^) Well, i hope you enjoy my newest creation. ^-^x"  
  
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Chapter 1: The First Encounter  
  
The night was pitch-black, although lit by a few candles inside the tents set up ahead of her and the beginnings of a camp fire. Luckily she was well hidden amongst the trees in the forest she occupied. If her father ever knew that she had followed him from Tokyo to Kyoto during the Bakumatsu... She shuddered at the possibilities of what his reaction might be.  
  
She knew she was strong enough to take care of herself, although she was only fourteen years old. She was the proud heir of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu, and, right before her father had left for the war, had mastered the style. Her father was proud of his only child for mastering the family style at a fresh fourteen years of age. Kaoru was heartbroken when her father had told her that he would be leaving her alone at home to fight in the war. Since her mother had died when she was still young, she had no one to stay at home for, and she wanted to be able to protect her father if the need ever arose. So here she was now, hiding in a forest, watching the Ishin Patriot's camp where her father, and about a dozen or so other patriots were staying until an attack plan could be derived.  
  
She thought, " I wonder what plan of attack they'll use this time..."  
  
Then she sensed some people making their way through the forest towards her. She soundlessly jumped up into the nearest tree. Just as she had expected, a small group of three men walked through a small clearing.  
  
The first two were quite tall. One had brown hair tied back in the traditional samurai high ponytail. The other had short black hair; both were dressed in a green gi and tan hakama. The third, however, was not much taller than her. his hair was a vibrant red tied up in the samurai ponytail; he was dressed in a blue gi and white hakama. She watched him as he walked through the forest with both eyes closed. She couldn't help but notice how surprisingly handsome he was... Just then he opened his eyes to reveal them to be a violent amber. And to her utter amazement, he seemed to be looking right at her.  
  
She was petrified by his gaze. She clutched her hands to her heart as she silently prayed that he wasn't looking at her. She closed her eyes for a few moments, only when she opened them, the red-haired man had left the other two and disappeared. She sighed in relief. "He has probably just gone ahead of the other two men," she thought.  
  
Suddenly, the branch that she had been sitting on cracked and broke off. She fell to the ground and landed hard on her back. She groaned slightly, then brushed the sticks and leaves off her white gi and blue hakama. She glanced at the fallen branch and began to study where it had broken. She gasped. The branch had not broken at all. It had been cut down. She had been discovered.  
  
She tried to stand up, but was immediately pushed back down with great force. She closed her eyes and winced as her head collided with the ground. Then she felt someone position themself on her and put their hand on her throat. She opened her eyes to see a pair of furious amber eyes penetrating her sapphire ones. It was the red-haired man she saw earlier, and he had his sword drawn. She gasped and he removed his hand from her throat to place it firmly over her mouth.   
  
She tried to call for help, but to no avail; the only sounds she made were completely muffled by his hand. She tried to break free from him, but he only brought his sword closer to her head. She gave up trying to break free and whimpered, begging him to let her go.  
  
He grinned. Then brought his face closer to hers. He whispered, "I know what you want. You want me to let you go, don't you?"  
  
His voice was piercing.  
  
She whimpered and nodded in response. He chuckled.  
  
"Well I'm sorry to disappoint you Miss, but I just can't do that."  
  
He sheathed his katana, then sat up atop her legs, thus removing his hand from her mouth. She gasped for air, his hand had been blocking most of the airflow to her lungs. She assumed that that was the only reason why he removed his hand from her mouth. When she reached a hand up to rub her throat, he grabbed both her wrists and held them to the ground. She swallowed hard.  
  
"What are you doing here hiding in these trees." He was interrogating her.  
  
A few tears escaped her eyes as he glared at her.  
  
"I... I came here to watch over my father; he's fighting for the Ishin Patriots and is camped here." she admitted.  
  
Somehow, he knew she was truthful, because he continued by asking, "Well then, why are you hiding out in the woods?"  
  
"Well... you see.. he uh, doesn't know I'm here..." She blushed slightly at her own blind honesty. She didn't even know this man, and here she was, telling him exactly why she was here... but strangely, she felt as if she could trust him......  
  
He stood up, and held out a hand offering to help her up. She blinked out of surprise, then took his hand. She felt his firm, yet gentle grip as he pulled her into a standing position. She noticed that his eyes were no longer amber; rather, they were a deep amethyst...  
  
He said, "Well then, I suppose it's time that your father learns that you are here."  
  
She could do nothing but nod in response as he led her through the forest towards the camp. After a minute of walking, he asked her, "What's your name?"  
  
She was taken back a bit, but answered, "I'm Kamiya Kaoru."  
  
He chuckled at the familiarity of her last name. "So, you are Kamiya-san's daughter. Well, now it makes sense why you were carrying a bokken with you as your only weapon."  
  
She was surprised. "What? Is my father the only one that doesn't fight with a katana?"  
  
"Yes," he responded, "And everyone is quite surprised that he's lasted as long as he has, using only a bokken to fight. And it is my assumption that you hold the same beliefs he does am I right?"  
  
"Yes of course."  
  
He laughed. "Well, I doubt you father will last much longer; and I'm guessing you are no stronger than he is, and you probably won't last too long either."  
  
She winced at the thought. He laughed again, then put a hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Don't worry Kaoru; you just stick with me and you'll live."  
  
He walked on ahead of her. She jogged to catch up, then walked at a pace equal to his.  
  
"And why is that?" she questioned him.  
  
He chuckled. "You'll find out soon enough." His eyes had become amber again as he glanced at her briefly.  
  
He grabbed her wrist as they exited the forest and entered the campsite. There were about a dozen men congregated around a campfire, surrounded by tents that were placed in a circular pattern around it. Some of the men noticed the hitokiri and the girl entering the camp.  
  
"Hey everybody, check out what Himura brought with him!" one man yelled. Then, all the men around the fire turned their attention to the pair. Most of them snickered or leered as she and the red-haired man passed. She could see desire and hunger in all of their eyes. The red-head that she now knew as Himura, didn't seem to notice this, but kept leading her toward the largest of the tents.  
  
Once they reached the tent, he opened the flap, and pushed her in ahead of him. Somewhere in her peripheral vision, she noticed him shoot an amber glare at the men outside. She thought, "So he did notice." She smiled to herself. "Wow, this guy may be really scary, but he sure is nice if you get on his good side. Maybe he's a friend of my father's... No, he doesn't seem the type. But he does seem to have respect for my father. Well, that's something at least..."  
  
He glanced at her. He could see happiness in her beautiful sapphire eyes; a happiness derived from the fact that she would no longer be alone. He couldn't help but smile to himself. "What is it about this girl..." he thought, "Why am I being so kind to her? And why does her presence make me want to smile?" He shook his head. She noticed his sudden movement and looked up at him.  
  
"What is it?" she asked, with slight worry in her voice.  
  
"Nothing." he replied coldly.  
  
"Okay..." she said softly.  
  
He hastily changed the subject. "You're father should be up ahead, just beyond the next tent flap. I'll take you in there." He pointed ahead of them before grabbing her arm and guiding her over to the flap. He tapped the floor with his foot. The people beyond the flap heard the noise, and immediately stopped conversing. Then, the flap opened. The tall, brown-haired man Kaoru saw in the woods emerged for the room beyond.  
  
"Oh, it's just you, Himura." he said; then he noticed Kaoru. "And who is the girl?"  
  
Whisper's erupted from the room ahead. The red-haired man looked into the room, spotted Kaoru's father, then spoke, "Stand down. I need Kamiya-san to come over here."  
  
The man at the doorway looked slightly taken aback for a moment, but then resumed his spot along the wall. Then, Kaoru's father walked towards the entryway.  
  
"What is it Himura-san?" he began, then he saw his daughter standing behind the hitokiri. "Kaoru?!"  
  
Her eyes lit up. "Father!" She broke free from Himura's grip and hugged her father.  
  
Kamiya looked at the hitokiri for an explanation.  
  
"I found her in the woods. She explained herself to me, and I brought her here." replied the red-head, walking into the room past Kamiya and his daughter. Kamiya cleared his throat, then spoke to the men inside the room. "Continue the meeting without me."  
  
Several of the men argued this. Kamiya sighed. "Alright, Kaoru, you wait right here for me. I'll be out as soon as the meeting is over." She nodded in response and sat down at the edge of the tent. Her father then turned around and re-entered the room. Kaoru sat there with nothing to do but become lost in her own thoughts.  
  
Back inside the meeting room, the meeting proceeded for where it left off. Yamagata cleared his throat and continued from where he had left off, "As I was saying, I will be leaving tomorrow morning with three escorts, so that I may report to Okubo-sama what we have learned here. Until I am able to return, I will be placing Kamiya-san in charge when I depart." No one showed any argument against this.  
  
Kamiya bowed graciously. "I thank you sir. I shall not let you down." Yamagata nodded. "This meeting is concluded. Go to your tents men, and rest." Five of the seven other men nodded and left. Only Kamiya, Yamagata, and Himura remained. Yamagata turned to Kamiya. "Call your daughter in. I would like to meet her." Kamiya nodded. "Kaoru?"  
  
She walked in the doorway. "Yes father?" He gestured toward Yamagata. "This, Kaoru, is Yamagata Aritomo. He is one of the leaders of the Ishin Patriots. He will be departing early tomorrow, and will be leaving me in charge of this camp until he returns."  
  
She nodded. Then Yamagata spoke, "Miss Kamiya, when your father is in charge starting tomorrow morning, he will most likely be extremely busy and will not have time to watch over you." He glanced at Himura, then turned his gaze back to the girl. "That is why I have decided that Himura-san will be the one to look after you while your father is unable to." He turned back to Kaoru's father. "Kamiya-san, you, your daughter, and Himura-san shall all share your tent. And I want you awake bight and early to see me off." Both men nodded. Then, Kamiya began to walk out. Kaoru slowly turned and began to follow her father. Himura put a hand on her shoulder and followed her out.  
  
When they exited the main tent, only a few men were still outside, and the fire had been put out, and so had all but a few candles.  
  
When they entered their tent, Kaoru noticed that there were no futons, just blankets. She shrugged it off. She had been sleeping at night sitting propped against a tree without even a blanket. She took off the bag that she had been carrying, and laid it down in one corner of the tent. Her father distributed blankets to her and Himura, then they all laid down to sleep, the two men on either side of her.  
  
Her father fell asleep uickly, and alhtough Himura seemed to be asleep, she could sense that he was still awake. She rolled over to face him. She whispered, "Hey, Himura-san." No response. She tried again, "Himura-san, I know you're still awake, I can sense it."  
  
He turned to face her, hten opened his eyes. She could tell that he was annoyed with her. "What?" he whispered.  
  
"Well, I was just wondering why everybody seemed kinda...afraid of you." she whispered back.  
  
"That's because they all have good reason to be."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because I'm the strongest man here."  
  
"And why is that?"  
  
"Because I am the Hitokiri Battousai."  
  
Her eyes widened in shock. "Wow... I've heard stories and rumors about the Battousai, but I never thought he really existed... but you're him. Wow... And Yamagata-sama assigned the most powerful of the Ishin Patriots to protect a girl like me? He must be crazy..."  
  
The red-head smiled. "Well, whether Yamagata is crazy or not, I still have to protect you." She nodded. "And you don't have to be so formal with me. My full name is Himura Kenshin. You may call me Kenshin if you like." he added. She smiled, "Really?" He nodded. "Okay," she responded.  
  
"Good night Kenshin."  
  
"Good night Kaoru." After that, he watched her fall asleep before going to sleep himself.  
  
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A/N: i hope you liked! reviews are always welcome!   
  
-peace and love  
  
--Miss Battousai ^-^x 


	2. Chapter 2: A New Friend

Chikara Kokoro (Strength of Heart)

by: Miss Battousai

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Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin, that I do not.

Oh, and PLEASE read my author's note at the bottom, it explains some stuff, that needs to be explained.

Miss Battousai: "Sorry it took me so long to update! But I've been rather busy with back-to-school stuff, and I've been ill (not good, ne?) Plus this chapter was really hard to write, I've got plans for like the next several chapters already, but this chapter is just random ideas I came up with. ^-^' Anyways, I am in awe that i got my first three reviews in less than 24 hours! And to boot i now have 17!! THANK YOU REVIEWERS! I have to say that this is the fastest that i have ever gotten reviews for any chapter of any story I've ever written. Thanx bunches! I now feel very loved. I definitely hope that this story will span many chapters, and i sincerely hope that readers will stick around until the end (whenever that may be ^-^x) Anyways, Enjoy!"

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Chapter 2: A New Friend

When Kaoru awoke the next morning, her father had already left the tent, and Kenshin was sitting by her, waiting for her to wake. She sat up, then yawned and stretched her arms. "Ah, good morning." she said.

He merely nodded. "Breakfast should be ready soon."

"Okay." She stood up, folded her blanket, and put it in the corner where the other blankets were folded and stacked neatly. Just then, someone outside announced that breakfast was ready. Kenshin stood up, and beckoned her to follow him. She did so.

Luckily this morning, the men were too hungry to pay her any mind, which she was most grateful for. Not long after she and Kenshin had begun eating, her father sat down beside her and ate as well. She took note that there were now exactly two dozen people at the camp including herself. She also noticed that Yamagata and his three escorts had left; she knew that this meant that her father would have to be left alone, and for her that meant many hours of boredom...

She sighed after she finished her meager meal. She was easily the youngest person there; everyone other than herself seemed to be at least twenty years old. She then picked up her bowl, and set it in the wash basin, as she had seen several others do earlier. She then began walking towards the forest. "At least if I go into the forest, none of those guys can stare at me again, and I can get some more time to think, with no interruptions." she thought.

She then sensed someone following here, and then recognized the ki as Kenshin's. She thought, "Geez... is he gonna follow me EVERYWHERE I go? He is SO annoying! Maybe I can ditch him if I run fast enough."

The instant she entered the trees, she began to run as fast as she could. Kenshin was surprised at how fast she could run, but he knew that she was no match for his god-like speed.

"What the HELL does she think she's doing? Does she WANT to get herself killed?" he muttered under his breath, before running into the trees after her.

She eventually slowed to a walking pace, and caught her breath. "Phew! I think I lost him." She smiled, "Wow. A girl like me actually ditched Hitokiri Battousai." she giggled.

Just then, someone came up and grabbed her arms from behind, and pulled her up against himself, then moved a hand to cover her mouth.

"Sorry to disappoint you sweetie, but it's utterly impossible for you to ditch me unless I let you."

It was only Kenshin, but she was still very pissed off and annoyed. She bit his hand to get it off her mouth. He gasped in surprise, but only for a moment. She was at least satisfied that her bite had drawn some blood on his finger. He then pushed her away from him with his unbitten hand. He was now quite pissed off.

"What the hell was that for?!"

"You asked for it!"

"I asked for it?! I think not!"

"You JERK!"

She smacked his head with her bokken. She was now seething with anger.

"You're not supposed to sneak up on me like that!!!"

"And why not?"

"Uh... because!" She folded her arms across her chest, then blushed as he laughed at her; this time, however, his laugh was cold and menacing like the other laughs she'd heard from him, this was a genuine laugh. She smiled and began to giggle along with his laughter.

When their laughter finally died down, Kenshin said, "You know Kaoru..."

"What?"

"You are one of the most annoying people I have ever met."

"And I could say the same thing about you, Kenshin." she giggled.

"And, although I hate to admit it, you kind of remind me of myself when I was your age." he added.

"You've gotta be kidding!" She turned around to face him, and saw large amethyst eyes beaming at her. He smiled, then replied, "I'm serious Kaoru; you loose your temper very easily, and when that happens, you hit people on the head with something; you're smart, you know exactly when to keep your mouth shut..." He laughed again. "Except you don't always keep your mouth shut when you should... my god, you're exactly like me!"

"You're kidding. Please tell me you're joking."

He shook his head. "Nope. I can't tell you that because then I'd be lying."

"Holy crap."

He chuckled. "You can say that again."

"But you don't seem anything like me."

He chuckled once again. "If you survive long enough to get close to me you'll understand, and be able to meet the real me, Kaoru."

"Well, why can't we start now? I wanna learn about Himura Kenshin; and I'm not talking about Hitokiri Battousai, I want to meet you, the real you." she said.

He was slightly taken aback for a minute, but one look at her undeceiving sapphire eyes, and he completely melted.

"Okay..." he gave in, "...But if you say one word about anything we discuss here, then I'll be forced to kill you."

"Okay. Those terms sound reasonable to me. Okay, so, let's start by my asking how old you are."

"I'm seventeen."

"What? You're only three years older than me! I figured you were like twenty or something like that."

He chuckled, "Yeah, that's what everyone thinks."

She giggled. "Okay, so do you have any family?" He shook his head, "No, my parent's died when I was eight years old."

"Oh I see. Well, you're not the only one who's lost a parent at a young age. I think I was only about seven when mom died. I'm just glad that I still have father." Kenshin merely nodded, looking fairly distant.

"Oh Kenshin, I'm sorry; I didn't mean to make you sad by bringing up family."

He shook his head. "No, you have no need to apologize."

"Oh, okay. So, do you have friends anywhere?"

"Friends?" he questioned.

"Yeah, do you have any friends?" she repeated.

"...No. I don't think I've ever had any friends. I mean, I have allies, but not friends..." his voice trailed off.

"Aw... Nobody should go their whole lives without any friends..." her voice began to trail off, then she spoke excitedly, "Hey! I've got an idea!"

He looked up, slightly surprised at her sudden cheerfulness. "What?"

She put her hands on top of one of his. "Why don't I be your friend? And you can be my friend too!" she said cheerfully. He looked up into her eyes and melted, yet again, into agreement. He nodded his head.

"Yay!" she exclaimed.

"But, why do you want to be friends with me, Kaoru?"

"Well, you are the person here who's closest to my age, and you obviously aren't going to let me go anywhere without you, and you're one of the few people here who don't stare at me like they're dogs, and I'm fresh meat, and--"

"Okay, I get it. You don't have to continue." he cut in.

She giggled. "Okay. Sorry about that, I just rant sometimes."

"As I've just noticed.." he added to her comment. She giggled again. He smiled in return.

The pair began a conversation that lasted for hours on end. Within that time, the two had formed an unbreakable bond.

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Back at the camp, lunch had just begun, and Kamiya noticed that Kaoru and Kenshin were nowhere to be found. He became extremely worried for his daughter's safety.

"Has anyone seen my daughter?" he asked the men around him.

Most shook their heads in response, but one spoke up, "I saw her go into the forest with Himura-san following her hours ago."

"I see, thank you. I shall return shortly."

The man that spoke nodded, then Kamiya made his way to the forest.

Once Kamiya reached a certain point in the forest, he could hear almost childish-sounding giggles and laughter not too far away. He then moved quietly toward the noises, until he saw both Kaoru and Kenshin smiling and laughing with one another. He was in awe, he had never seen the young man smile, and he doubted that very many people had ever seen the young man as happy as he was at this particular moment. Kamiya thought, "My daughter has always been a very special girl… and this apparently proves it." He smiled.

Just then, Kenshin turn his still smiling face and large amethyst eyes towards Kamiya. The older man gasped slightly. Then Kaoru spoke up, "What is it Kenshin?"

The young man returned his attention to the girl, "It seems that your father has paid us a visit." He replied, still smiling. Kamiya's eyes widened in shock.

"What?" Kaoru responded, slightly surprised.

Kenshin returned his gaze toward the older man, "All is well here Kamiya-san. You have no need to worry about your daughter when she is in my care." He gave an honest smile, and placed his right hand on Kaoru's left shoulder. Kamiya relaxed and came into the small clearing that his daughter and the young hitokiri occupied. Kaoru walked up to her father.

"Father, why are you in here looking for me?" she scolded him, "You should be back at camp with everybody else; you're in charge if you have forgotten that already." She looked at him sternly.

He smiled at his daughter and placed his hands on her shoulders before speaking, "I remembered Kaoru-chan, but I came looking for you because I had no idea where you were. And form now on you need to tell me where you are going before you go anywhere, is that understood Kaoru?""

She pouted, but complied. "… Yes father…"

"Good. Now, follow me you two, it's lunchtime." He said.

"But father! I don't wanna go back to camp! Not with all those men staring at me anyways."

He sighed. "All right, I'll be right back with some miso and sake for you two then."

"Ooh! Sake! Father you hardly ever let me have any sake, are you feeling all right?" Kaoru said.

"of course I'm fine Kaoru. And I think you're a responsible enough girl, aren't you?"

She beamed at him. "Of course I am!"

He smiled. "Good, now stay here with Himura-san and I'll be right back."

"Okay." She replied as she watched her father's retreating figure. When Kaoru was sure he was out of earshot, she fell backwards on top of Kenshin's lap, laughing. He was a bit shocked for a moment, but then he realized why she was laughing; she was planning to get drunk behind her father's back and have lots of fun in the process. He chuckled. "She can really be a little demon when she wants to be," he thought.

Kaoru finally stopped laughing and looked up into her companion's face. "So, have you figured it out yet?" she asked.

"Yes. And I suppose that this is why your father rarely lets you have sake."

She pouted. "Yeah, so what? I'm still a kid, I can have a little bit of fun, can't I?"

He smiled, then placed a finger over her lips to stop her protesting.

She glared at him, but he only laughed. "I won't tell him anything." 

Her lips curled up into a smile and he removed his finger from her lips. "Thank you Kenshin." She said as she placed one of her hands on top of one of his. When he noticed this, his cheeks turned slightly pink. Kaoru saw, and started teasing him. "You were blushing," she teased, moving her hand, and using her index finger to point at all of the pink spots on his face. His blush deepened as he attempted to push her hand away, but she was persistent, and wouldn't stop giggling. This went on for several minutes, with each times she teased him, his blush became deeper, until they sensed her father returning with their lunch. Kaoru immediately sat up, and turned to face Kenshin, while he shook his head to remove the blush from his face. She gave him an evil grin; he returned her grin with a scowl. She simply giggled as she turned around to greet her father. Just then, the older man came into the tiny clearing with a tray of food, two sake cups, and a small sake bottle. Kaoru stood up to take the tray from him. She smiled. "Thank you father."

"You're welcome Kaoru-chan," he responded, letting go of the tray, then gently kissing her forehead. "There's enough food and drink here for dinner for the both of you as well, since I won't have time to make another trip back and forth. Well, I'll see you both this evening then." He turned and began to walk away.

Kaoru smiled and said, "Okay, see you later father." The older man nodded before disappearing into the trees. Kaoru then proceeded to set down the tray between herself and Kenshin, and they began to eat silently.

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Several hours later, as the sun was just beginning to sink below the horizon, Kaoru had officially become drunk, and had, somehow in her drunken state, begun teasing Kenshin about when she had put her hand atop his earlier. His blushing had returned more furiously than before, and her giggles had increased as well; and this time, she had begun flirting with him as well, making him blush even harder.

"You're blushing! Ha ha! And you can't deny it!" she said mockingly, while following him around, trying to put her arms around his neck.

She giggled as he tried continuously to get out of her reach.

"Oh, come on Kenshin! You know you wanna kiss me and hug me," she giggled before finally latching onto his shoulders. "Hee hee. I got you."

"Okay fine, you got me," he said, giving up fighting her.

"Yippee!" she squealed. "So are you gonna kiss me now?"

"What!?! No, I'm not gonna—You know your father would have my head if I ever…" he said, his voice trailing off.

"Oh what? Am I not pretty or something?" She asked, scowling at him, looking quite offended.

He blushed again, then responded, "N… no. That's not it. I, uh, I think you're really cute, but.. dammit," frustration was apparent on his face. "but I, I just want to be friends. And I don't want to ruin our friendship… and uh… And besides, you're drunk!" he finished with full confidence in his voice.

She giggled again. "Good point. Okay, you win Kenshin."

He nodded. "And also, despite any feelings that I may have, I have to shove them all aside because those emotions are only a weakness," he finished resolutely.

She sighed sadly, which confused him, "What?" he asked.

She sighed again before responding, "That's bull shit Kenshin."

He was shocked, "What?!"

"You heard me Kenshin!" she replied angrily, slamming her fist onto his chest. She continued, "Emotions aren't a weakness Kenshin. They're what keep us strong, they're what keep us from becoming heartless beasts that don't have any compassion; they can't feel any true happiness, nor love, nor guilt, nor sorrow… Our emotions are what keep us human Kenshin, you can't just throw them away like they're nothing, because if you do that then you'll become a monster too." She wrapped her arms around his back and buried her head into the crook between his neck and shoulder. His mouth hung open in amazement at her words, until he felt his shoulder becoming soaked with fresh tears that were pouring out of her eyes. He wrapped his arms comfortingly around her. She dried her tears on the collar of his gi and spoke again, sleep beginning to encompass her, "Kenshin…"

"Yes Kaoru?"

"You have a beautiful heart…" he gasped in surprise. She continued, "But it's covered in scars brought by all the pain and suffering in this war… just like this one…" she reached a hand up, and placed it gently on the cross shape on his left cheek before continuing. "And someday, you'd better let somebody into your heart, so that they can help you heal those scars."

His left eye allowed a single tear to escape and fall down his cheek, onto her hand. He smiled.

"Don't worry Kaoru… Someday I'll let you in."

She blinked in surprise. "Why me?"

"Because you've just taught me something I probably never would have learned otherwise, and you opened up your own heart to me… and for that I owe you at least that much. I promise that someday I'll let you heal my heart…"

Kaoru felt him gently stroke her head before sighing contentedly, and finally allowing sleep to engulf her.

Kenshin felt her heartbeat slow to a resting pace, and heard her breathing slow and maintain a constant pace as well. She had fallen asleep. He smiled, then looked up at the sky.

The sun had completely gone now, and the only light left was that from the radiant full moon.

He chuckled. "A full moon, huh? I guess this means I'm destined to keep my promise to her then." He sighed happily and picked her up carefully. "We'd better get back to camp now." He smiled before gently kissing her forehead. He then returned to camp with her sleeping form in his arms.

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A/N: I loved that last scene…. And I finally brought up his scar… oops. I meant to bring it up in the first chapter but I kinda forgot about it. He he… oh well.

If you didn't get this info from above, you have my sincerest apologies for not updating in so long, but I have been really busy with back to school stuff and haven't had a whole lot of time to work on this chapter, even though I've been spending every spare minute on it I can. And since next semester starts in 4 days, I'll have even less time to write. But I will try! I promise! I don't only want to write this story for you, the reader, but also want to write it for myself too. (sorry if I sound a tad bit selfish. ^_^')

Oh and I should probably tell you that the Tomoe thing basically happened, but he never married her or fell in love with her. Just the drill about how she wanted revenge for her fiancée's death, he got the 'x'-shaped  scar, etc etc etc. But no lovey dovey connection between her and my Kenshin. ^-^x Oh, and I'm not a Tomoe hater for those Tomoe fans out there, she simply has no significance in this story. I actually kinda like her to be completely honest, so please no bashing on me or my story. ^_^'

Oh, and if  anybody has any questions, please feel free to ask away. I will gladly answer any questions if you are confused about something. ^-^x

I hope that you are looking forward to the next chapter, because that is where the real action starts. ^_~x Yes, plenty of sword-wielding action, blood, drama, and tears.

-Peace and Love,

--Miss Battousai ^-^x


	3. Chapter 3: The Surprise Attack

**Chikara Kokoro (Strength of Heart)**

**By: Miss Battousai**

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Date last updated: Sunday, September 07, 2003 

**Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin, that I do not.**

****Gomen nasai! This chapter took me a _hell_ of a lot longer to write than I originally thought it would, but I got writer's block like 20 times when I was trying to write it… Gomen nasai again.****

Miss Battousai: Yay, this chapter finally gets into the blood and action and stuff. I'm boosting the rating up to PG13 now for all the violence, blood, cussing, etc, etc, etc. I swear I just have some curse that doesn't allow me to write any story without any cussing… $#!+!! Oh, and I apologize if the beginning of the chapter is a little boring, but I had to lengthen it out somehow. Anyways, please enjoy the story. ^-^x

* = Author's note, look at bottom of chapter to find these notes.

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Chapter 3: The Surprise Attack 

A week had passed at the camp since Yamagata and his escorts had left, and there had still been no word from the outside world. This had made everyone rather tense, especially Kamiya. Kaoru noticed that even Kenshin had become worried, and he had become rather distant, even from her.

Over the past week they had grown even closer to each other, so close it was as if they had known each other their whole lives. They had even secretly become boyfriend and girlfriend the day before. Kenshin, being a gentleman, had wanted to ask her father's permission first, but Kaoru was afraid of what her father's reaction might be, so she convinced him not to for the moment.

Kenshin and Kaoru both woke up early that morning. Unlike most mornings, Kaoru was the first to wake. She made sure her father was still sleeping soundly before scooting herself and her blanket up against Kenshin. She sat up halfway and moved her fingers gently up the left side of his face up to his forehead, before twirling his bangs between her fingers.

Somewhere I his sleeping state, he felt gentle fingers playing with his bangs. His amethyst eyes were greeted by smiling sapphire ones. "Good morning," whispered Kaoru's voice. "Good morning," he whispered back. "How long have you been playing with my hair?"

She smiled. "Only a few seconds. You woke up almost as soon as I started," she replied. "Oh," was all he could say before she leaned in and their lips locked together. After a minute or so, Kenshin gently pushed Kaoru back. She pouted.

"What was that for?" she asked, criticizing his action.

He sighed heavily. "I know you'll be angry at me for saying this, but…"

"But what?" she interrupted, glaring at him.

"But…" he continued, "I'm going to ask your father's permission to court you."

"Kenshin!!!" she shrieked quietly, so as not to disturb those still sleeping. "Kenshin you can't!" she whispered angrily.

"And why not?" he asked, sitting up and folding his arms across his chest.

She whined. "But Kenshin… Don't you have any idea how he'll react?! I mean--"

"You're right, Kaoru," he interrupted, "I don't have any idea how he'll react, and that's why I'm going to try. Besides, I'll feel too guilty if I don't." He closed his eyes resolutely.

Kaoru growled, "You stubborn little--"

She interrupted by the amber glare Kenshin shot at her, and the sound of her father moving behind her.

Kamiya sat up, and questioned his daughter, "Kaoru, what is all this chatter about?" Kaoru panicked and didn't respond. When Kamiya noticed that she wasn't going to respond, he went to Kenshin for answers instead, "Himura, what is all the noise for?"

Kenshin cleared his throat and shot Kaoru an instantaneous evil grin before speaking, "I'm sorry that my and Kaoru's conversation woke you up Kamiya-san."

"That's quite all right Himura," the older man responded, "But may I ask what it was that you two were talking about that had Kaoru so upset?"

Kaoru turned her face top glare at Kenshin. He gave her a quick teasing glance before continuing, "Yes, Kaoru was angry at me because I wanted to ask you something, but she doesn't exactly want me to."

Kamiya raised an eyebrow, "Well, go ahead and ask me then."

Kaoru glared daggers at Kenshin, who simply ignored her, and continued talking with Kamiya. Kenshin cleared his throat, and with all seriousness, said, "Kamiya-san, with your permission, I wish to court your daughter."

Kaoru's anger faded the instant Kenshin finished speaking, and she looked at her father, hoping or a positive reaction from him.

Kamiya closed his eyes in thought. Kaoru bit her lower lip, nervously awaiting her father's response. Kamiya opened his eyes, and looked right at Kenshin, who had hung his head down so that his bangs covered his eyes; Kenshin expected his request to be turned down.

Kamiya broke the silence at last, "Before I give you my reply Himura, I must ask you one thing." Kenshin nodded with his eyes still hidden. Kamiya continued, "Are you in love with my daughter?"

Kenshin immediately looked up, his brilliant amethyst eyes widened in surprise. Kaoru stood up. "Father! You shouldn't ask a question like that!--"

"Kaoru," Kamiya said, raising a hand to silence her. "Stay out of this."

"Yes father…' she responded, as se sat back down in defeat.

Kamiya turned his attention back to Kenshin, and, for the first time, Kamiya was looking into the eyes of a seventeen year-old boy, rather than those of a hitokiri.

"I don't know…" Kenshin answered. Kaoru opened her mouth both in confusion and shock.

Kamiya raised an eyebrow in both curiosity and suspicion, "And why don't you know?"

Kenshin hesitated for a minute, then responded, "To be completely honest Kamiya-san, I don't even know what love is, nor can I know whether or not that is what I feel for your daughter," he took a deep breath and sighed before continuing, "I cannot deny that I do indeed have feelings for Kaoru, although I cannot decipher exactly what those feelings are."

"Hmm…" was Kamiya's brief response, before his face contorted to show a grin. Kenshin and Kaoru both looked at him in utter confusion. Kamiya's smile only broadened before he spoke, "Well then my boy," Kamiya placed a hand on Kenshin's shoulder, "I must ask you to allow my daughter to show you what love is."

Kenshin looked at the older man in pure surprise. Kaoru released a contented sigh. Kenshin finally recovered form his surprise, and bowed graciously, "Thank you Kamiya-san."

Kamiya-san waved his hand in the air to dismiss it, "You have no need to thank me Himura. Well, now that I am awake, I had might as well begin my duties for the day. All right. You two behave yourselves now." Kamiya said in a very fatherly manner, before he walked out of the tent. Kaoru giggled with happiness.

"Yay!" she said while still giggling.

Kenshin looked at her and grinned, "And you were the one vouching against my asking him."

She pouted, "So what? Oh, and what about you and your 'I don't know if I love Kaoru or not' thing?" She stuck her tongue out at him. 

Kenshin, in turn, grabbed her right ankle, and pulled her out of her standing position, so that she now lay flat on her back, sprawled out on the ground next to him. She glared at him.

"What was that for?!"

"You stuck your tongue out at me."

"But that doesn't give you the right to pull me to the ground!!"

"So?"

"You jerk!" She took her bokken and smacked him on the head.

"Ow! That wasn't very nice Kaoru."

"Hmph! Well you deserved it!" She sat up and folded her arms across her chest.

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever…"

She laughed at him. "You are _so_ strange Kenshin! Do you know that?"

"Well yeah, I'm not _exactly_ your average seventeen year-old boy, now am I?"

She giggled, "Nope," she said before she scooted close enough to him to hug him, "but even if you weren't Battousai, you'd still be special."

"I guess so…"

"And what is up with that 'I don't even know what love is' thing?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean Kenshin!"

"listen to me Kaoru, I honestly don't have any idea what love really is. I've never had anyone close to me, no family to show or to teach me what love is. I mean, how can you tell if you love someone or not?"

"It's something you just know. It's not something you think about for along time; you just _know_. It comes to you at just the right moment."

He gave her a look that said, 'Are you sure?' She smiled and nodded. He sighed, 'Okay, I'll take your word for it."

She giggled. Then, a man form outside announced that breakfast was prepared, and the pair walked outside the tent.

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Late that afternoon, into the early evening, Kenshin and Kaoru were back inside the forest, by a small river they had found a few days earlier. Kaoru had taken her shoes and tabi socks off, and was playfully swishing her feet in the water, while Kenshin sat propped up against a nearby tree, with his katana and wakizashi propped up against his shoulder.

As Kenshin sat there, he couldn't help but watch Kaoru joyfully splashing in the water, and as he did that, his thoughts began to wander. He wondered how this ordinary fourteen year-old girl could see right through his intimidating and emotionless mask to find the sad and lonely boy he was at heart. This girl had seen his true self with less effort, and in the amount of time that would take any other person several lifetimes to figure out on their own. She wasn't ordinary at all; either she had a wonderful gift of being able to read people's hearts, or there was simply something about her that made him subconsciously trust and allow her to see who he truly was.

The pair's musings were cut short by shouts heard back at the campsite. Kenshin immediately stood up, and placed his swords back at his side, and patiently waited while Kaoru dried her feet and put her socks and shoes back on. Then they both jogged back to camp.

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When the two were closer to the campsite, they heard the sounds of clashing metal and shouts, and assumed that some of the men had gotten into a fight. Once they got past all the trees, however, most of the men that they saw there were not men form the camp. The new men's uniforms had strange zigzag shapes on their gis. Kenshin clenched his teeth together. "Shinsengumi…" he muttered.

Kaoru gasped. She didn't expect an enemy attack, nonetheless did she expect that they would send the Shinsengumi, one the Shogunate's strongest groups of samurai.

"The Shinsengumi, " Kaoru said, looking at Kenshin in panic, "What are we going to do Kenshin?"

Just then, Kamiya and another man ran up to them. Kamiya spoke, "Himura, we are under attack; I need you to get Kaoru somewhere safe as soon as possible."

"Yes Kamiya-san." Kenshin replied.

The man that came with Kamiya spoke next, "Kamiya-san, which units do you think they've sent? Do you think it's the third squad?"

Kenshin answered before anyone else could say anything, "No. If the third squad was here, I would already be fighting their leader, Saito Hajime; and the third unit usually travels with the first unit and their leader, Okita Souji, and neither of those two are here."

"Then which units are here?" the man asked in panic.

Kenshin looked at the Shinsengumi men, trying to find the leaders, then he saw them, and answered the man's question, "Unit ten under command of Harada Sanosuke*, and Unit seven, lead by Tani Sanjuurou. Now quit wasting time and fight them off; I need to get Kaoru to safety."

The man bowed and replied, "Yes Himura-san." He ran off to join the fight.

Kamiya spoke up, "I'm rusting you to protect Kaoru."

"I will."

Kamiya nodded and ran off to join the battle. Kaoru started to follow him, but Kenshin grabbed her arm and pulled her into the forest. She struggled to break free from his grasp, but he only held her arm tighter. "Let me go Kenshin!"

He whipped her around so she was facing him. His eyes were deep amber as he spoke, "No." She flinched at his harsh, almost growling tone of voice. He continued what he was saying, "You are _not_ going over the that battlefield because if you do, and you get killed, then it's my fault, because it's my job to protect you."

She winced at his powerful grip, but followed him as he led her away form the camp.

Kenshin noticed that they were being followed by the two captains of the Shinsengumi units, and  quickly grabbed Kaoru, jumped up into the nearest tree with her in tow, and then safely deposited her there before leaping back down to the ground to face their followers.

Up in the tree, Kaoru watched as Kenshin led the two captains away from the tree she was residing in. From here, she had a clear view of Kenshin's battle, and that of the battle at the campgrounds. She decided that she would just watch Kenshin's fight.

Tani was older and more experienced than Harada was, so he challenged Kenshin first.

Tani smirked, "It seems our information was correct; Battousai is here. And since you are here Battousai, you will die!" Tani charged and released a diagonal slash at Kenshin, but it missed. Kenshin jumped high into the air and released a Ryu Tsui Sen attack; Tani however, blocked it, and the two jumped back to place some distance between each other. Then, Tani charged again, using a form of Hirazuki**. Kenshin countered with a diagonally executed Battoujutsu, which broke through Tani's sword, and cut into his chest before he knew what hit him. Tani's eyes blurred before he groaned and fell to the ground face down, where he lay dead with a pool of his own blood soaking the ground near his body.

Harada was fuming at the man that had just slain his mentor. He unsheathed his katana to challenge the one known as Hitokiri Battousai.

"Now we fight Battousai!" Harada yelled fiercely.

"As you wish," was Kenshin's stoical reply.

Harada lunged at him, using the same version of the Hirazuki that Tani had used. Kenshin decided to, again, attack with a diagonal Battoujutsu. This time, however, his attack was blocked. Ash Kenshin and Harada kept releasing attack after attack at each other, none of them making contact with flesh. Kaoru got bored, and began to watch the battle at the campsite. And what she saw happening there pulled her attention form everything else-- There were only three men left not yet dead, two of the Shinsengumi and her father.

Her father was holding his own very well, however, when he was beating one man back, the other stealthily snuck up behind him, and before Kamiya could turn to block, thrust his katana into the man's lower back. Kamiya's blue eyes widened in shock and he gasped for the pain, as his bokken and he fell to the ground.

Kaoru couldn't stay still any longer. She clutched her bokken and ran as fast as she possibly could to her fallen father, with dozens of tears pouring down her face. "FATHER!" she screamed.

When she finally reached him, she checked for a pulse. He was alive, but just barely. With her tears falling onto his face as she hovered over him, he opened his eyes to look at his daughter one last time. He brought his hand up and held her cheek. She moved both her hands up and placed then on the hand covering her cheek.

Kamiya gained the last of his strength to speak to her, "Kaoru… my… beautiful daughter… don't worry.. about me……"

"But……"

"No 'buts' Kaoru… Get out of here… become stronger… and live your life… to it's fullest. ……" he breathed one last, deep, and painful breath, "I love you… my daughter……"

His body went limp, his breathing ceased, and his pulse gone. Kaoru, not wanting to believe that her father was dead, shook him frantically, but gently. "Father! Father! No… Please don't be dead. Please don't be dead… NO…"

When his lifeless form didn't budge, new tears formed in her eyes, and she let them fall as she screamed, "DADDY!!!"

Kaoru sobbed until she felt someone grab her arm, trying to get her off her father's body. She assumed it was Kenshin, and turned to look at him. The only problem was, it wasn't Kenshin; it was the two Shinsengumi men that were left. Her face contorted with pure rage as she grabbed her bokken, and hit the arm of the man holding her arm; she hit his arm so hard, that it nearly broke the bone.

"Ow! You little bitch! You're gonna pay for that ya know!"

"I'm gonna pay for a damn thing, do you hear me!! _You're_ the ones that are responsible for my father's death, so _you're_ the ones that will pay!" she retorted, clutching her bokken in both hands, and charging at the man that stabbed and killed her father. Her bokken, however, never made contact with the man, as it was cut in half by his katana. Instead, Kaoru fell, face on the dirt.

"Don't worry little girl, we won't kill you yet. We just wanna have a little fun first." The man snickered, then laughed. The other man soon followed suit and laughed as well.

Kaoru knew exactly what the men planned to do to her; they wanted to rape her. She wasn't going to let them do that; she was stronger than that. When the first man grabbed her arm, trying to turn over, she dug her fingers into the ground beneath her, and wouldn't budge. The other man, then grabbed her other arm, and began to pull. She only dug her hands harder and deeper into the ground, holding on for dear life. The men finally figured out why she was impossible to move, and began trying to pry her hands from the ground.

"Leave me alone you bastards!" she growled.

"Not yet sugar," one of the men said evilly. She growled again; then it hit her, the men were only paying attention to getting her hands out of the ground, so she braced herself, then kicked both her legs up, and the bottom of her feet collided with both men's heads, and they went flying backwards, while Kaoru landed gracefully on her feet and held her fists up, ready to punch them if they tried anything else.

Both men got up slowly, and groaning; both had bloody noses. "You bitch!" said the one that killed her father, as he charged with a surprising speed towards Kaoru, and knocked her onto her back. She screamed at the top of her lungs, "KENSHIN!!! HELP ME!!!!!"

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In the forest, Kenshin was still fighting Harada, when he heard Kaoru scream for him from the campsite. He turned his head in the direction of Kaoru's voice. He barely noticed that Harada had slashed his arm; Kenshin first injury in the fight.

"Dammit…" Kenshin said as he grabbed the cut on his arm. "I don't have _time_ for this!" Kenshin yelled, as he slashed right through a caught off guard Harada. After Harada fell dead to the ground, Kenshin ran at top speed to the camp where he heard Kaoru's scream.

When Kenshin got there, he saw man, almost on top of a kicking and screaming Kaoru, trying to open her hakama, and the other man hovered a few back. Kenshin wasted no time; he immediately lunged at the closest of the men to him, the one standing, and slashed through him. Then, he kicked the man on Kaoru, making him fall to the ground several feet away. Kenshin stood between the man and Kaoru.

Kaoru sat up, and clutched onto one of the legs of Kenshin's hakama, and began crying onto his knee. Kenshin glared at the man in front of him with amber eyes full of hatred and disgust. The man was frozen in fear.

"Oh shit--" the man said, before Kenshin unsheathed, and threw his wakizashi, that went right through the man's throat, and protruded out of the back of his neck.

As soon as the fell over dead, Kenshin knelt down, and examined the sobbing Kaoru for any injuries; she had none, and luckily, her hakama was still tied and in place.

"Are you all right Kaoru?" he asked her, looking down at her with gentle, amethyst eyes. She slowly her head up to face him, then, with more tears streaming down her face, she raised her hand and pointed to where her father's now lifeless body lay. His eyes followed her arm to see what she was pointing at, and saw that Kamiya lay there lifeless. He turned back to Kaoru, seeing her tear-stained face, and watery sapphire eyes pleading for him to comfort her. He nearly choked on his words as he spoke, "I'm so sorry Kaoru…"

Then, Kaoru collapsed into his arms, allowing a fresh river of tears to flow. Kenshin secured his arms around her and brought her closer to him. She buried her face in the crook of his neck, and he gently began stroking the back of her head.

Eventually her sobs died down, and she took a deep breath to steady her breathing once again. "Kenshin?" she asked timidly.

"Yes Kaoru?"

Kaoru could tell from his voice that he was hurt, if only slightly, by her father's death. She sat up, and looked up at his face. "Kenshin, I want to make him a grave."

He nodded. "Yes. That is the least an honorable man like him deserves."

Kenshin slowly stood up, then took her hands and helped her to stand, then said, "But we must hurry, because I thought that I saw one of the Shinsengumi leave to retrieve back-up earlier."

"Right." Kaoru said, as she wiped the tears form her eyes. Kenshin walked over to the fallen tent that had once been theirs, ripped off most of the cloth, and carried it over to Kamiya's body, and began to wrap the cloth around the body. Kaoru walked to where the tent once stood, saw the bag that she had brought with her, picked it up, an d once again, pulled the strap over her head and let it rest over her shoulder. She then resigned to watching Kenshin.

Kenshin had finished wrapping the body, and motioned for Kaoru to follow him as he picked up her father's body and carried it into the forest. She obediently followed.

Kenshin led her to their spot by the river, where he set down Kamiya's body, then walked off, telling Kaoru to stay there.

Kaoru watched as Kenshin left. She sighed, and then walked over to where her father's body lay. She sat down, and began to run her fingers through his hair as if trying to soothe him.

"You don't have to worry about me father… Kenshin will take care of me. I'll be safe with him. And I refuse to waste my life mourning for you; I'll be strong and live my life full of pride and honor in knowing that you were my father, and in knowing that you loved me so."

Kenshin put down the shovel that he retrieved form the campsite, as he watched and listened to Kaoru.  He shook his head; she didn't deserve to go through the pain of having no family left. He left his thoughts and walked out into the small clearing.

"Kaoru, I found a shovel. I'll start digging now; just tell me where you want me to dig."

She stood up. "No, I'll do the digging until I'm too tired."

"Kaoru…" He really didn't want to argue with her right now, but one look on her stubbornly resolute face, and he gave in. "Fine." He threw the shovel to the ground by her feet. Her stubbornness really got on his nerves sometimes. He walked over to the tree he had sat at earlier that day, and retired to watching her dig.

Kaoru began digging a few feet away from the edge of the river.

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After a few hours, and about four feet deep, Kaoru had completely exhausted herself, and collapsed. Although she expected to hit the ground, she never did; and she opened her eyes to see Kenshin standing over her.

"I think the hole is deep enough Kaoru."

She nodded her head and allowed him to carry her and sit her up against a tree. She watched as he pushed a large rock across the grass to the edge of the grave furthest from the riverbank. He looked to her for approval; she nodded her head, and then said, as he picked up the body, "Put him in so he's facing the river. I want him to always be able to see the beautiful landscape."

Kenshin silently nodded, and did exactly as she requested. He then silently refilled the hole and covered the body with the soil that was originally dug out.

After the grave as completed, Kaoru went over to a small patch of flowers at the riverbank. She picked them, carried them over, and placed them atop the grave. She then knelt down to pray. Kenshin watched her for a moment, but then knelt down beside her.

They were interrupted by the sound of men approaching the camp form the opposing side of the camp. Kenshin immediately stood up and grabbed Kaoru's hand. "We have to go, _now_." Kaoru nodded and stood up. Before she knew it, she was scooped up into Kenshin's arms, and he had leapt over the river, and was now running at top speed away form the camp.

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Kenshin ran until they were completely outside of Kyoto's outskirts, when he slowed his pace and entered a forest near a small Neutralist town. By this time, it was pitch black outside.

 He finally put Kaoru down when he reached a riverbank.

"Well finally, you'd been carrying me for what seemed like forever."

She looked at Kenshin, and noticed that he wasn't paying any attention to her. "Uh, Kenshin? Hello? Anybody home?"

He still wasn't paying her any attention, and this pissed her off.

"Hey BAKA!" she yelled into his ear.

He finally snapped out of his daze, "Whoa--What?"

"You were ignoring me Kenshin, that's what!"

"Oh… sorry."

"And why didn't you come to help me sooner than you did?"

He could tell she was pissed off, and was apparently trying to get him angry also; and it was working quite well.

"First, you need to explain to me _why_ you didn't stay in that tree!"

"My father had just been mortally wounded! What do you think I would've done?!"

"But you would've been safe had you actually stayed where you were!"

"SO what?! You still should've come sooner!"

"If your keen sense hadn't noticed, I was a little preoccupied fighting a guy that wanted nothing more than to slay me!"

"So what?! Those guys almost raped me!!"

"Kaoru, would you just come off it! You're lucky I even came to your rescue! I mean, if I didn't love you so damn much, I would've just let those bastards kill and rape you! I wouldn't give a damn what happened to you, and I would've just left and been on my way!"

Kaoru completely lost her voice; she stood there in shock. Kenshin noticed that she wasn't retorting, so he said, "What? Where's your snappy comeback Kaoru?"

Kaoru's voice finally came back to her, "You… you said……" Her voice trailed off.

"What? What did I say?" Kenshin asked, completely confused.

Kaoru gave a half-hearted laugh, then looked at his confused amethyst eyes, "You said… you said that you loved me…"

His eyes widened in shock. He hadn't been thinking clearly when he'd yelled at her, so he hadn't realized what he was actually saying. But now he realized exactly what he'd said. He let out a half-hearted laugh just like Kaoru's.

"You're right. You were so right."

"What do you mean 'were'?"

"This morning, when you said that 'love is something that you just know'; and you said that 'it comes to you at just he right moment'. You were right. And it came to me, and I had no idea that it did." He began laughing.

"What the hell are you laughing at?"

His laughter finally died down. "I'm just laughing at the irony, Kaoru. The whole damn thing is full of irony…"

"Oh…" was her response.

"I mean, look at me, the 'infamous, cold-hearted, blood-thirsty, Hitokiri Battousai'. Here's an infamous hitokiri, known for shoeing no emotion or mercy to those that I have to kill, and here I am falling in love with a young girl who shows whatever emotion she's feeling, and who was raised under the belief that killing others is wrong. It's all just too ironic…"

She smiled a half-smile. "Yeah… it's all so messed up. And before I actually met you, I thought I'd hate your guts, being a hitokiri and all, but I just can't bring myself to hate you, and for the same reason yo have, because I'm in love with you." She shook her head, "Life is full of too many insane twists."

"It definitely is…" Kenshin responded.

"Yup…"

Kaoru looked at Kenshin's arm, and for the first time, noticed the cut on it. "Kenshin, your arm! It's got a cut on it."

"It's no big deal, Kaoru. Don't make such a fuss about it."

"Okay fine, but you need to let me bandage it up for you, okay?"

"Okay."

"Good. Now sit down, and you're gonna have to take your arm out of the sleeve so I can clean it and bandage it up properly."

He merely nodded and did as requested.

After his arm was bandaged up, Kaoru spoke, "Kenshin," She was interrupted by a yawn, and her eyes drooped slightly, "I'm… sleepy…"

She yawned again, and allowed her head to fall gently onto his lap. She then grabbed the cloth of his hakama at his shins, and brought it up just under her chin, as if she were a small child. It was in that position, that she fell asleep.

Kenshin just watched her in wonder. She truly was a special girl. He simply smiled at her childish actions, and moved her so that her head rested just under his chin, and he held her lovingly, as he too, fell into the realm of sleep.  

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_Author Notes:_

*Harada Sanosuke- the actual leader of the 10th unit Shinsengumi during the Bakumatsu. Not at all related to Sagara Sanosuke. Sagara Sanosuke will be in the story later on, so don't worry all of us who love the lovable oaf!

**Hirazuki- attack where the sword's blade is parallel to the ground. This is a Shinsengumi specialty. Saito Hajime's Gatotsu is a left-handed form of the Hirazuki technique. Oh, and Saito will make multiple appearances in this story. Uh oh… Lol.

~Additional Note: all names of Shinsengumi captains used in this story are the names of the actual captains from the Bakumatsu. The author did her homework ^_~x

Phew! What a long chapter! Please don't be mad at me for taking so long to write it, because I've been torturing myself over finishing this chapter. Plus I've had loads of school crap to do. Oh, and for your reference, it'll probably take another two weeks to a month for the next chapter to come out.

-Peace and Love

~^-^x~ Please review. You _know_ you want to make my day brighter! ~^-^x~


	4. Chapter 4: Moving Forward

**Chikara Kokoro (Strength of Heart)**

**By: Miss Battousai Noelle**

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Disclaimer: see previous chapters

Noelle: Please don't kill me! I've been working my ass off on this story, I've even been writing some chapters that take place _way_ later in the story… Please don't kill me, I've just been _way_ busy… and oh crap! My english mid-term is tomorrow, _and_ I have an essay due on Thurs…. crapit… ok… breathe, breathe… ah, much better! Anyways… I've barely started chapter 5, but I will do my best to write it faster than chapters 3 & 4. And I really need to write my outline for this story… geez… it's so pathetic, I already know pretty much everything that's gonna happen here, but filling in the details is the hardest part. And I'm writing ahead, getting those ideas down, so that when the time comes for me to write that part, I know exactly what I'm gonna write… yay… gomen! I'm ranting again! Lol. Yeah… I do that… Anyways… on with the story!

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Chapter 4: Moving Forward

The next morning, Kaoru was the first to wake. When she woke, she surprised to find that her head was no longer on Kenshin's lap, rather it was right underneath his chin, and he had his arms wrapped protectively around her. She tried to get up, but his arms only constricted around her and held her tighter. She found this quite amusing, so she began to try to escape his arms again. And, once again, he squeezed her tighter. She went into a fit of giggles. Then, for fun, she reached around to the back of his head, and yanked his ponytail.

He woke with a start, reflexively bringing her closer into him with one arm, while unsheathing his katana with the other. Kaoru giggled uncontrollably. Kenshin stared at her.

"What's so funny? Who tried to attack us?"

She laughed, "The only that was attacked was your hair, and I'm the one that attacked it."

"Why?"

"Just to see if you'd wake up, and if you did, I wanted to see exactly what you'd do." She giggled again, "and it was funny to see you all freaking out, and pulling me into you, and drawing your sword like somebody was attacking us."

"You are _so_ annoying."

"Why thank you."

"You're also impossible to get a straight response out of when yo don't want to respond."

"Yup!" she responded cheerfully.

"But…" he said teasingly, as he turned her around to face him, "But I know a way that I can bribe you into telling me anything

"And may I ask what that way is?"

He brought his face close to hers, as if he were about to kiss her. Kaoru, fully expecting a soft kiss form him, closed her eyes and waited. Kenshin's lips just slightly grazed Kaoru's before he pulled away. She then opened her eyes and pouted at him. He grinned evilly.

"That's one way," he said as he stood up, picking her up with him. "And the other way, is to spoil you like you were a princess."

Kaoru giggled at the thought of Kenshin treating her like a princess. "Well," she said, "I think you're probably right. But, would you really spoil me? And treat me like princess?"

He laughed at her childish follies. "Only if you're a good girl."

"I can be a good girl." She giggled.

"Good," he said, entirely serious, "Because now that it's just the tow of us, we're going to have to be more cautious than ever. And, once it's safe for us to go back to Kyoto, you're going to have be able to take care of yourself."

"Why? You're not just gonna leave me there are you Kenshin?!"

"No! Of course not! But once we get to headquarters, I'll most likely have lots of assignment, like nightly rounds, guard duties, assassinations, and other things like that, and so I won't be able to be right there with you wherever you go."

"Oh…" her voice gradually faded, until she had a question, "But, how am I supposed to fight people off if their stronger than I am?"

"That," Kenshin said, "Is exactly why I've decided that I am going to teach you Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu."

Kaoru couldn't believe her ears. "No way! You've gotta be kidding me!"

"I'm not joking Kaoru. It'll make you stronger, faster, able to read your opponent's moves and emotions with ease, and this way, you'll be strong enough to protect yourself when I can't. But I won't teach it to you unless you're prepared to put all your heart, body, mind, and soul into it. I'm forewarning you Kaoru, this training is extremely rigorous, and you must be dedicated and be fully willing to do this. And I pretty much need your answer now, because if you decide to undergo the training, then I'll have to start teaching you as soon as possible."

"Oh."

"I'll give you today to think about it, but I'll need your answer before you go to sleep tonight."

"Oh, okay. I'll give you my answer by tonight then."

Kenshin merely nodded before continuing, "Well, next we are going to have to go into town and find an inn to stay at for the time being."

Kenshin then grabbed her hand, and proceeded to walk towards the town. Kaoru yanked his back. "Wait Kenshin! Look at our clothes! We can't just randomly walk into some small town with blood all over our clothes! People would _know_ that we just came from a battle. We have to change our clothes."

"Okay, so where are we gonna get a change of clothes? We're in the middle of a forest Kaoru."

"Leave the clothes to me. When I left home, I came plenty prepared. I packed a kimono and an extra gi and hakama, just in case. I also brought some money, some non-perishable food, a blanket, and some matches to help start a fire if needed." She smiled proudly.

"Well Kaoru," Kenshin said, "I must admit that you are _the_ perfect survival kit. You've got your handy little bag with food, clothes, money, and all that stuff; and as a bonus, I get my own warm and snuggly living plush doll."

Kaoru rolled her eyes as Kenshin playfully grinned at her. Kenshin then walked behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist, and pulled her into him.

"Anyways…" Kaoru said, while Kenshin began nosing her hair. She gave into the temptation to play with his fingers while she continued to speak, "Anyways… Once we get into town, people are probably going to be really suspicious as to why two teenagers of opposite gender are randomly walking into town. They'll probably think we're runaways."

Kenshin abruptly stopped nuzzling her hair. "You're right. Well… we can pretend we're married. NO one will have any suspicions that way."

"Whoa. Don't you think that's a little much? I mean, couldn't we just say we're boyfriend and girlfriend? I mean, that wouldn't be lying."

"I know what you're saying Kaoru, but even if we said we were engaged people would still be suspicious as to why we're _alone_, and traveling together with no parents or guardians. Whereas, if they think we're married, then there wouldn't be any question as to why we're traveling with only each other, _and_ this way, we'll be able to rent just one room at an inn."

"But, why one room? What are the advantages to that?"

"First, we won't have to worry about being separated; second it's less expensive; and third, we can discuss our plans with a lesser chance of being of being overheard."

"Oh, okay. So… are we gonna use our real names?"

"We'd might as well, just in case we ever come back to this town. We'll also have to keep track of what we tell people, so that we don't contradict or disprove anything we'd said previously."

"Of course. So, who's last name are we gonna use?"

Kenshin shrugged. "I don't really care. We'll use whichever one you want ot use."

"Okay. Umm… Well… we'll just use yours, okay?"

"That's fine."

"Okay." She giggled. "… Himura Kaoru…" she smiled, "That does have a bit of a ring to it, ne Kenshin?"

"Whatever you say pet." Kenshin responded, before kissing the top of her head, and releasing his hold on her.

"Okay." Kaoru said, becoming serious, "Now we need to change our clothes."

"Right…" Kenshin responded, "And how are you planning for us to do that? I mean, I'm a guy and you're a girl, we can't very well change our clothes in front of each other; well, unless you want to…"

Kaoru grabbed the empty wakizashi sheath from Kenshin's waist, and smacked his head with it. "Hentai! You have to close your eyes _and_ turn around you baka." She folded her arms in defiance.

Kenshin rubbed the newly formed bump on his head. "I guess that's a 'no' to that suggestion. Oh well."

"Just shut up, close your eyes, and turn around." She said as she pulled a simple sky blue kimono out of her bag.

"Fine." Kenshin said as he turned around and closed his eyes.

He listened to the sound of rustling clothing for several minutes.

When Kaoru finished changing, she said, "All right, you can look now."

Kenshin slowly turned around. He had never seen her wear a kimono before, so he had no idea what to expect. When his eyes fell upon her, he thought she looked absolutely perfect. The sky blue fabric of the kimono and the navy blue color of the obi perfectly accented her sapphire eyes. The fabric fit her perfectly; it wasn't too loose, and it wasn't too tight either. In his eyes, she looked angelic.

Kaoru noticed how his eyes glazed over while looking at her, and her cheeks became a slight shade of pink. She then reached into her bag, and pulled out a deep navy blue hakama and a light blue gi that was tinted so lightly, that is was difficult to tell whether it was white or blue. She made her way over to Kenshin, and shoved the clothes at him.

Kenshin finally snapped out of his daze when Kaoru said, "Okay Kenshin; It's your turn to change."

"Okay." He said, as Kaoru walked past him, keeping her back to him.

Again, the rustling of clothing was heard, and then there was complete silence.

"Are you done yet?" Kaoru asked impatiently.

"Yes. And you _really_ must like blue, don't you?"

Kaoru turned around, ignoring his comment.

He still looked a bit disheveled, even though it was a nice gi and hakama he was wearing. She walked up to him, and began fixing the gi. She attempted to smooth it out, but it kept popping back into it's original position, so, she decided to tuck it in further into the hakama. Once she started tucking the gi in, Kenshin was utterly embarrassed, and his face turned a light rimson color.

"Uh… Kaoru?"

"What?"

"Um… Don't you think you hands are a little low?"

Her hand collided with his left cheek. "Ouch!"

"Shut up you hentai; all I'm doing is fixing the stupid gi, so you look a little more," she tied an extremely tight extra knot on the waistband, "_respectable_."

"Oi! Watch how tight you tie that thing woman! If you'd tied it any tighter, I wouldn't be able to breathe!"

she stood, then rolled her eyes at him. "You wanna feel clothes that are actually tight and restricting? Then try wearing a kimono!"

"No thanks. I'll stick to men's clothes, even if the waistband is tied too tight."

"Good. 'Cause I don't want _any_ complaints out of you."

"And what's up with this? You're acting all… weird."

Kaoru smiled mischievously, "Well, you're the one that suggested that we pretend we're a married couple, ne?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So, I'm going to treat you like you're my husband, and you're going to treat me like I'm your wife. Got it?"

"Oh crap. What did I get myself into? It was going to be hard enough just living with you, but now you're going to torture me as well. I'm afraid to think about what it would be like to actually be married to you."

Kaoru began giggling uncontrollably. "Oh lighten up Kenshin! Just pretend it's a game and you'll survive."

"That's all this is to you isn't it? It's all a big game."

"Well, that's not entirely true, because no matter how much I wish it were so, I can't bring my father back. But on the other hand, what we're going to do now will be a game of sorts."

Kenshin remained silent. He regretted what he'd said. It had reminded Kaoru of her father's death. He knew she had to be suffering a great deal internally, but she tried her best not to reflect her pain on the outside. She was still mourning for her beloved father, but at the same time, she was trying her best to move forward with her life. Kenshin admired her strong spirit, and resolved to be kinder to her, and not teasing or pulling and joking stunts on her, until she was entirely settled in to her new life.

Kaoru sighed; wonderful memories of her father had begun rushing into her head. However, this really wasn't the time for her to be reminiscing, she had to collect herself and move forward. After all, she now knew that Kenshin was truly in love with her, and she with him, and she also wanted to make the most of every moment she shared with him. Now he was her best friend, boyfriend, and pretend husband; and, if she agreed to learn Hiten Mitsurugi, he would also be her teacher and mentor.

While Kaoru was still in her daze, Kenshin slung the bag over his shoulder, ready to head into town. "Are you coming?"

Kaoru snapped out of her thoughts and ran up beside him, tossing the now useless wakizashi sheath into the river. "Of course I'm coming you baka!"

"Good. Now you can learn to keep pace with me, so I don't have ot keep slowing down for you."

"Shut up! You know I don't have god-like speed like you do!"

"I know, but you can at least learn to walk a little faster; you're as slow as a snail!"

"Yeah right!"

"Well then speed up!" he said as he walked on ahead of her.

She growled then jogged to catch up with him. Once she reached him, she nonchalantly slipped her hand into his. "You're supposed to wait for me. After all, I am supposed to be your wife, remember?"

"So? I can still tease you. There's no law against that, now is there?"

"Yeah well there should be. And whatever happened to chivalry?"

Kenshin shrugged, "Beats me. And besides, I don't know why a girl like you would expect it, miss Tough-stuff."

"Oh shut up. I'll bet if you were a woman, you wouldn't be as tough as me."

"Oh yeah? Well, if I'd gone through all the same things I've gone through, I would still be this strong." Kenshin retorted confidently.

"No you wouldn't."

"And why not?"

"Because the Ishin would never have hired a young _girl_ to be a hitokiri. And as a matter of fact, no one would even consider hiring a girl to do any job the revolves around fighting."

"I guess you're right…"

They silently walked the rest of the way to town.

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When they arrived, people had begun staring at the pair and whispering amongst themselves. Kaoru, however, was too fascinated with all the small shops everywhere to notice what the people were doing. She saw a store that had different kinds of sweets in the display window. Her eyes immediately lit up and she pointed it out, "Look Kenshin! A candy store! Can we go in?"

He took her hand and pulled her in the opposite direction. "We can go to any shop you want after we find a place to stay."

"Any store I want?"

He turned his face to her with sparkling violet eyes and a loving smile residing on his face. "Yes koishii, any store you want."

"Yay!" she giggled. She figured that he was only acting so nice because he didn't want to look suspicious, but she loved his kindness all the same. It made her feel more at ease; and after everything that had happened and everything she knew was to come, anything that kept her happy was well worth it.

Kenshin could see from the look in her eyes that she loved how nice he was acting towards her. He also assumed that she thought it only to be an act, but he honestly felt otherwise. He loved showing her affection; it was something that, during the years he spent as a hitokiri, he had never had a chance to do. Before his days would always be the same: cold and lonely. He was stuck indoors all day, sitting through boring meetings that he had no need to pay any attention to anyway, and then at night, he would always receive a black envelope with all the details of that night's assassination, he would then perform his job, return to the inn that he was otherwise confined to, bathe, then go to sleep. It was the same routine, everyday, never any exceptions unless he was sent to another location to become someone's temporary bodyguard, which only happened on the rare occasion. He was truly thankful that Kaoru came into his life; it took him away from the tiresome and mindless usual routine, and gave him something, or someone rather, to care about. He loved the feeling that he was needed for something meaningful, rather than for solely being able to kill people whenever asked to. Kaoru was a heaven-send to him, and he was not going to give her up, not for anything.

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**Answers to reviewer questions:**

****

~From: Innocence8: Question: Is Tomoe in this fic?

--My Answer: At this point, nope. I think I may, at some point in the story, have something come up, and have Kenshin explain what happened with Tomoe, and say that he met her, and he accidentally killed her, but they never fell in love or anything like that. What is my purpose for not having Kenshin fall in love w/ her, you ask? My sole intention was for him to not be all angsty; I wanted him to be fresh and ready for love. ^_~x Yeah, I think that explains plenty of stuff, but I won't make a big deal at all about the whole Tomoe thing, because this whole fic is basically about Kenshin and Kaoru's relationship. So, yeah, I'm not gonna spend a whole lot of time on the whole Tomoe thing, if any; I'm still deciding though, so I'm not 100% sure exactly what I'm gonna do w/ that yet.

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Reviews are always very much appreciated, and make my days happier! ^_~x 

~ Peace, Love, and Hugs! ~


	5. Chapter 5: Peaceful Days: The Beginning

**Chikara Kokoro (Strength of Heart)**

**By: Miss Battousai Noelle**

***** means that I'll have the English translation at the bottom of the chapter

**Disclaimer:** ……What is the point of these stupid disclaimer things anyways? I mean, OBVIOUSLY nobody here _owns_ the characters they write about, ne? I mean it wouldn't be _Fan_fiction.net if we actually owned these characters anyways… Geez…

**Miss Battousai: **Hehehehe… HI! Yes, the crazy authoress is back at last with ch. 5, which is _extremely_ short by the way. I've been unbelievably busy lately; thank goodness I'm on fall break from now till Sunday! Yippee! Hehehe… Yeah, and another reason I haven't really been updating this story is that I'm also working on like… 3 other stories at the same time, so…yeah… Yeah, I'm working on 3 or 4 other stories, some of which I may never post here, or I may never finish them; yeah, I do that, I write stories, but many times I never finish them. Heh heh heh… Yeah… Whoa! It seems that I've ranted long enough, lol. So, I'll leave you to the story now.

~Oh, and I _AM_ working on my other fics that are actually posted on fanfic.net, so I hope to get them updated… sometime soon… but no guarantees peoples… gomen nasai…

^-~x Peace and Love!

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**Chapter 5:** Peaceful Days: _The Beginning_

After Kenshin and Kaoru dropped off their things in their room at the town's only inn, they went directly back to the streets to see more of the town, and to do some shopping.

The first shop they went to was a weapons shop. When they walked in, Kaoru went directly to a display with finely crafted bokkens and shinais, while Kenshin walked over to a dusty shelf with two sheathed swords that were covered in dust along with the shelf.

He picked one up, and unsheathed about two inches of the blade. His lips curled up into a slight grin; he had found what he was looking for.

He resheathed the sword and placed it back on the shelf before walking over to Kaoru, and dragging her to the dusty shelf.

"Hey! What are you doing Kenshin?!"

"I want you to come over Here and look at this."

"Why? What is it?"

"I'm going to buy this sword," he said as he picked up one of the dusty swords and deposited it into her hands, "And you will be using it."

She was fuming, "Kenshin!! I am _not_ going to use a katana!"

"Kaoru hold on! Before you go all crazy, unsheathe it and look at the blade."

"What? Why?"

"Just look at it."

"Fine."

She slowly unsheathed the sword, then shoved the sheath into Kenshin's hands. She reluctantly looked at the blade.

"The blade's backwards! How?"

"It's not a katana. It's called a sakabato."

"A reverse bladed sword…" Kaoru said, almost in a whisper. "But, why would you know about these?"

"Kaoru, I'm a swordsman, I have to know about many kinds of swords."

"I know that! But this sword… I thought it was only a legend, an old wives tale… It must be really rare and expensive."

"You're right about the rare part, but wrong about the expensive part."

"Why?"

"Because sakabatos are worth practically nothing."

"Oh."

Kenshin took the sword form her hands and placed it back into its sheath. Kaoru was curious as to why he was already buying her a sword when she hadn't even told him her decision about whether or not she is willing to learn Hiten Mitsurugi.

"Why are you buying me a sword so soon?"

"Because even if you don't agree, you'll still need a weapon to defend yourself with along with the skills you all ready have."

"Oh. I guess that makes sense."

"Good." he said before walking up to the man behind the counter. He set the sword down and said, "I'd like to buy this."

The salesman took one quick glance at the sword. "You don't need to pay for it; I was just about to throw it out with the trash anyways since it ain't worth nothin'. Even with the pair of 'em, I can't get any money from 'em. And since your taking one, why don't you get the other one offa my hands too."

Kenshin nodded to the man, then signaled to Kaoru to pick up the other one. Kenshin then tossed some coins onto the counter as he and Kaoru walked away.

"Thanks." Kenshin said just before the pair exited the store.

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Kenshin and Kaoru visited many shops that afternoon, buying some more clothing and other necessary items.

They returned to the inn just after dark.

Once in their room, Kaoru went into the adjoining bathroom to bathe and to change into her new yukata, while Kenshin changed inside the main part of the room. When he finished changing, he rolled out the only futon in the room and lay down.

A few minutes later, Kaoru came out of the bathroom, braiding her hair. When she tied the braid off, Kenshin motioned for her to join him under the covers.

She slowly walked towards the bed. She was nervous since she had never shared a bed with anyone before.

"Daijoubu. Koi koishii."*

She relaxed at his comforting words an encouragement.

Kenshin took her hands as soon as she was close enough, and gently pulled her down until she was lying next to him. He then pulled the blanket over them and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Oh Kenshin?"

"Hai?"

"I've decided that I want to learn Hiten Mitsurugi from you."

He gently kissed the top of her head. "Good. Now I won't have to worry. Good night."

"Good night." she returned.

He heard her release a contented sigh as she snuggled into him. He gently stroked her hair until they both fell into a peaceful slumber.

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Aww… more fluffiness… I know, a very short chapter, but the next chapter is gonna be longer. Please review!

**English Translations:**

Daijoubu- It's okay

Koi- Come here

Koishii- sweetheart, darling, love, etc.

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~Ok, I'm gonna advertise for a second, if you wanna check it out, my RK website is: www. angelfire. com/ anime5/ missbattousai (ignore spaces)

~And I'm teaming up with Koishii Sweet (authoress of Confessions of Love and the Past Equals Kaboom!) and we are running a site called Blazing RK: http:// groups.msn .com /BlazingRK (ignore spaces)

So, it would be GREATLY appreciated if you all checked them out!

~ Peace and Love! ~


	6. Chapter 6: Peaceful Days: The End

**Chikara Kokoro (Strength of Heart)**

**By: Miss Battousai Noelle**

Disclaimer: see previous chapters

Oh yeah… just to let everybody know, All Flames Will Be Used To Intensify The Hotness Of Kenshin! ^-^x

Miss Battousai: GOMEN NASAI!!!! I'm sooo sorry it took me sooo long to update (what, like a month??) but I have been super duper super busy with, what else… school. Wow, what a surprise. Plus, I've been coming up with dozens of ideas for new stories. Oh yeah, and I _sincerely_ apologize for the extreme shortness of this chapter, especially since I said this one would be longer, but the next one should definitely be longer (no guarantees of course! Hehe…). And I think that , because of the amount of little author notes on this chapter, it kinda works out okay, lol. But I am working! I'm working my ass off here on everything I have to do, and it's giving me much stress, and driving me even more insane than I already am (if that's possible), so pleeeaaase bear with me and my hectic schedule! Your patience is much needed! Thanx, I'll greatly appreciate it! Luff U All!!

~Oh, and thanx to my buddy Koishii Sweet and all her ranting about how she'd die if I didn't post this chappie soon, I finally posted this chapter. Heehee… Lol.

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Chapter 6: Peaceful Days: The End

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Two months have passes and Kenshin and Kaoru have come to know the people of the town quite well, and they have earned the respect and friendship of many of the residents. Everyday over the past few months, Kenshin and Kaoru returned to the river near the town, where Kenshin had been teaching Kaoru Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.

Kaoru was just finishing a few last katas when Kenshin came up behind her and pulled her into him.

"Kenshin." She said sternly. "I can't finish my katas if you're hanging onto me like this."

"I know," he replied, "but how about we quit a little early today? You've been working very hard over the past two months. You deserve a bit of a break, ne?"

She giggled, "Okay, but only a little break—"

They both froze.

There was an unfamiliar and unfriendly ki in the trees not too far away. Kaoru turned to face Kenshin, whose eyes had turned solid amber.

"I sense it too," she whispered.

He merely nodded and beckoned her to follow him.

She sheathed her sakabato and did as requested of her.

Kenshin stood tall, with his hand atop the hilt of his katana. "Whoever is there, show yourself at once."

Nothing.

Kaoru, hoping to lure whoever it was out, walked towards the strange ki. Then a sliver of silver flashed directly in her face. She rolled behind the man, unsheathing her sword and striking him in the back; a perfect Battoujutsu.

The man went flying forward, landing sprawled out before Kenshin. The man was clad in a Shinsengumi uniform.

Kenshin grabbed the barely conscious man by the collar of his gi and brought the man's frightened eyes so that they were parallel with stoical amber.

"Tell me your purpose for spying on us and who sent you." Battousai demanded.

The fearful man answered, "I… I was s.sent here t.to w.watch you, b.Battousai, and then r.report back to my u.unit leader."

"Which unit are you?" he demanded.

The man whimpered. "N…number three."

Kenshin threw the man to the ground, enraged. "Damn that bastard Saito!" he cursed loudly.

The captured Shinsengumi man began to run away, however he couldn't complete his task before Battousai's blade sliced through his flesh.

Battousai swiped his katana through the air, sending the blood from it onto a nearby tree before sheathing the blade.

"Kenshin?" Kaoru said timidly.

His eyes eventually faded to a steely blue. It is time we go to Kyoto. We will return tot eh inn, gather our things, and be on our way."

She nodded and obediently followed him back to the town.

When they arrived back at their room, Kenshin began hastily throwing things into one of their bags. Kaoru decided that she might as well start putting their belongings neatly into the other bag.

Soon all of their belongings were packed, and the pair had left the inn.

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Responses to reviewers:

Response to Midoriko:  I'm sorry that you might have been offended by my supposed lack of research, however, as an experienced writer who knows the standard procedure for writing many kinds of literature, I wish that you would understand that I did about 48 hours worth of research before I even began writing this story. It also pains me to come across another intelligent person who cannot seem to understand that this, and all stories on fanfic.net, are pure _fiction_, and are not meant to be completely accurate accounts of actual historic events, ideas, etc. I hope that in the future you, and everyone else that might flame a story, will take this into consideration before anyone else flames another very promising author whose historical details are not perfect. I will be grateful for your understanding on this matter. ~Thanx~

~Peace and Love~

~Miss Battousai~

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Oh, and for the two people that asked if I would send them my updates via e-mail… there's just wee little problem with that, since my main e-mail has been acting up lately, (and I can't use my personal e-mail address since my parents can track everything that goes through that one) I am unable to send you the updates via e-mail. My sincerest apologies, but I if could, then I definitely would since I greatly appreciate your dedication to this fic!

Hugs go out to all my kind reviewers! Thank Kami-sama for all my wonderful reviewers! Without you all, I wouldn't have enough motivation to continue posting on fanfic.net! (Of course I'd still post on my website, but you know…) Arigato!!

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A brief sneak-peek/summary of next chapter:  Something from Kenshin's past comes up when they arrive at the Ishin headquarters… Could it have to do with his childhood?? Or does it have to do with a certain someone he used to know years ago??

*I shall leave you all in suspense until then!*

~Peace and Love (Y do I do this peace and love thingy?? Oh well, it's prolly just something left over from my Hippie phase a few years ago, lol! Anyways… maybe I'll think of a new phrase for myself. Until then I'll just use this one, lol.)~

~MissBattousai~

^-~x


	7. Chapter 7: Kyoto

Chikara Kokoro: Strength of Heart 

**By: Miss Battousai Noelle**

Disclaimer: see previous chapters

Okay, I'm _extremely_ sorry for the long delay, and I'm just overall completely worn out from everything that has been going on. I have so many things to do, and Encore Crew is taking up anywhere from three to three and a half hours of my time for three nights a week, every week, so I'm also getting less sleep than normal also; so I apologize profusely for the very long delays. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding on this matter.

~BTW: Today, Feb. 4th, 2004, is my sweet 16th birthday! Yay!!! And it's the first time in a little over a week that I've actually been able to turn on a computer. O.o Scary… oh well, I'm happy since I got a cell phone and the Lord of the Rings Two Towers DVD as presents! ^___^x So I'm having a nice L.O.T.R. night tonight, lol.

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Chapter 7: Kyoto 

There were a million questions running through Kaoru's head as she and Kenshin trekked their way through the forest route to Kyoto. 'Why was it so important that they go immediately to Kyoto? Who was this 'Saito', and why is he sending people to spy on us?' were a few of those questions.

She couldn't stand it any longer. She had to ask.

"Kenshin?"

The young hitokiri ignored her. This pissed her off greatly. "Hello? I'm talking to you baka!"

He continued to ignore her.

Kaoru became enraged. "You stupid bastard! How dare you ignore me?!"

Kenshin suddenly whipped around and grabbed her arms. His now golden eyes were piercing her cerulean ones, revealing to her all of his latent anger. She winced under his fierce grip and, for the first time since their meeting, he spoke to her in a malicious tone. "No questions now. Do you understand me?" he growled.

"Let go of me!" she yelled, defiance obvious in her eyes. She pulled her arms free from his grasp. "Just because I'm in love with you doesn't mean that I'm yours to do with as you please!" she said bitterly.

He grabbed her waist and brought her body right up against his. "Sorry to disappoint you love," he said angrily, "but from the very first moment those words were first released form those soft lips, you belonged to me. You willingly gave yourself to me and it's much too late to take that back now. And also, you should be forever grateful to me for not forcing you to become my sex slave like any other man would have done. I haven't even asked anything like that of you, and you still act as if I'm controlling you."

She pushed herself a few inches away from him. "But Kenshin you do control me. You make me go places I don't want to go to, you won't let me go anywhere alone, you won't let me go home, you don't let me buy any of the things I want-"

"This is war Kaoru! No one can ask for things they want! And do you actually believe that I want to be here? Do you really think that I don't want to give you everything you could ever desire? I hate this as much as you do, maybe even more. I don't want to be a hitokiri; I wish I had a home to go to so that I could just curl up in my mother's lap and wish the war away. But I _can't. _I have to fight so that the children of today and tomorrow can live in a world without war and all the hatred and suffering it brings." He sighed, "I have to do this Kaoru."

"Well then why can't I go? I can go home to my dojo in Tokyo and wait there until the war is over, and then you can go there too." She pleaded.

"It's not that simple Kaoru. Saito will know by now that you are with me, and that you mean something to me. If you go off now, he'll send men out to fetch you, and he'll use that against me."

"Are you sure?"

"Kaoru trust me, the only thing Saito wants form me I my death."

"But surely he won't be able to kill you." Kaoru looked at his solemn and silent face, "Will he?" she was now afraid.

Kenshin closed his eyes and spoke monotonously, "He is probably the only man that can kill me. Just as I am probably the only man that can kill him."

Kaoru stood limply; images of Kenshin's body lying slain in a pool of his own blood were filling her head. "No…" she whispered as Kenshin gently held her head under his chin and ran his fingers through her ponytail.

"You see Kaoru, staying with me is how _you _can protect me."

She sighed. "Okay. I'll stay with you. And I'll try not to go crazy next time you piss me off."

He chuckled. "Yeah, like that'll happen with that temper of yours."

"Ouch!" Kenshin yelled as a bokken collided with his head.

"How the hell did you get a bokken?!"

Kaoru immediately hid it behind her back and began whistling innocently. "What bokken?"

A vein on Kenshin's forehead began throbbing in his anger. "I _told _you _not _to buy any more bokkens!"

"I guess I just couldn't help myself." Kaoru said as she blushed a shade of light pink.

Soon her blush faded and she giggled as she ran ahead along the trail. "Come on slowpoke!"

Kenshin sweatdropped. "That girl is going to be the death of even if Saito never manages to capture her," he muttered under his breath before running after her.

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A few hours later, the pair arrived in Kyoto.

"Stay close to me." Kenshin whispered as they entered the heart of the town. Kaoru obediently walked closer to him, allowing his arm to protectively snake itself around her waist. She soon discovered why Kenshin wanted her to keep close to him: there were hardly any women out on the streets, and those that were, were either storekeepers' wives, standing behind the counters speaking with customers, or geishas running around in small groups, constantly flirting with every attractive man they saw.

Kaoru immediately knew that this was not a safe place for any female to be.

After a few more minutes of walking through the streets, a pair of geishas noticed Kenshin and walked up to him.

"Long time no see Battousai-sama." said the first one.

Kenshin growled. "How many times have I told you to leave me the hell alone bitch."

The geisha laughed. "Oh come now Battousai… you _know_ you want me… no man can resist my charm."

This angered Kaoru greatly, and she pushed the woman away from Kenshin. "You'd better get the hell away form him right now! He's mine you slut, so you'd better get used to it!" She placed the hand on the hilt of her sheathed sakabato threateningly, "Unless you want that pretty little face of yours to meet my blade…"

The silent geisha stepped backward, stumbling in fear, while the other simply laughed. "You stupid arrogant brat. You couldn't possible hurt me, Leiko the great, even if you wanted to."

Kaoru smirked. "Well, we'll just have t see about that, now won't we? Leiko the great slut."

"Oh, and by the way," Kaoru added, "you really need to fix up your Kimono." She walked up to the woman and pulled the kimono's collar up so that none of the woman's cleavage was showing.

Leiko was completely stunned as the girl walked away from her. Kaoru grinned deviously and continued speaking, "That's much better. At least now you _look_ like a woman of respect. Well, see you around." She finished cheerfully. 

As soon as Kenshin and Kaoru left the scene, with fingers entwined together, everyone on the street had stopped what they were doing and burst into laughter.

Leiko's face was bright crimson as she ran into an empty alley to escape from her spectators. "That little bitch is going to pay for that. I _will_ have Battousai as soon as I get rid of her."

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After Kenshin and Kaoru had proceeded further, Kenshin pulled Kaoru over into an empty alley and kissed her. When he pulled back, a puzzled Kaoru stared at him and asked, "Not that I didn't enjoy that but… what was that for?"

He grinned. "It's because you're brilliant. No one has been able to get rid of Leiko like that before."

"Oh so I'm brilliant now am I?" she giggled. "Cool." She said just before Kenshin began planting kisses along the side of her neck, making her giggle even more. "Okay Kenshin, that's enough for now. You've had your fun, so you can save the rest until we actually get some real privacy."

He groaned like a child being denied candy. "But pet…"

She pushed him back. "No buts, now come on. Let's get going." She said before walking back to the street.

Kenshin grumbled and ran after her.

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Soon the pair had left the main street and came to a small two-story inn, which was surrounded by a tall fence of dark iron bars.

Kenshin led Kaoru to the gate and spoke to the guard just beyond the gate, "Move aside. I've come to report to Katsura."

The guard spoke, "I'm sorry Himura-san, but the girl does not have clearance."

Kenshin glared at the guard, but remained calm. "She doesn't need Katsura's permission to enter. The only permission she needs is mine."

"I'm sorry sir, but it must go through Katsura-sama."

"All right then. Go tell him that there is one other survivor of the recent forest battle besides myself, and that she is here. And that is an order."

The guard bowed and quickly jogged into the building.

After a few minutes, Kaoru asked quietly, "Who's Katsura?"

Kenshin kept his eyes focused on the building and responded, "My boss."

"Oh." Kaoru whispered just as the guard emerged form the building.

The guard hastily opened the gate doors and motioned for them to enter. "Katsura-sama is in a meeting at the moment, but he is awaiting your arrival and do not mind if you walk in now."

"Thank you Kaoru. Come Kaoru." Kenshin said. Kaoru followed obediently.

They soon reached the meeting room and Kenshin lightly rapped on the shoji before opening it and stepping into the room beyond. The men surrounding the long table instantly stopped their conversations and turned their attention to the young hitokiri who stood in the doorway.

"Welcome back Himura," said the brown haired, brown-eyed man who sat at the far end of the table, "It is good to know that you are back with us in excellent condition. And where, may I ask, is Lady Kaoru?"

Kaoru, who was hiding just outside the doorway, timidly walked into the room, partially hiding herself behind Kenshin.

The man at the end of the table smiled. "No now milady, there is no need to be shy here; you have survived a difficult battle that most of us strong men here could not have, and for that I believe you deserve our eternal respect. It is a great honor to have such a strong and courageous young woman in out midst."

Kaoru was speechless.

Many of the men in the room stared at the man as if he had completely lost his mind.

Kenshin spoke up, "If that is all you need of us at the moment Katsura, then I believe we shall go ahead and go up to my room."

Katsura cleared his throat. "Yes, that is all for now. I shall send for you two when I need you."

Kaoru followed him up a flight of stairs, and into the room at the farthest end of the left hallways.

Once inside, Kenshin threw down the bag eh was carrying, and went directly to the northeast corner of the room and sat down to meditate. Kaoru laid down her bag, and decided to use this time to fill the closet and dresser with their belongings.

Just as Kaoru had hung up all their clothes, a knock came at the shoji door. Kenshin immediately walked over and opened it. "What is it?" he asked the man at the door.

"Katsura wishes to see you and the girl in his office." The man replied.

"Very well," said Kenshin, "You may go now."

The man bowed, then quickly walked away.

"Come Kaoru." Kenshin said.

She merely nodded and followed him down the halls to Katsura's office.

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~That's it for chapter 7 everybody! I hope you enjoyed, I don't know at all when I can update next, but I will try to get it posted as fast as time allows (which may be a while). Until then, I'll give you a brief preview of chapter 8: Kenshin and Kaoru have a meeting with Katsura, discussing what part Kaoru will have in the Choshu clan. The two options are: 1.) working at the inn as a maid or chef, or 2.) fighting.

PS: This chapter's longer than the last one! Lol

Okay, until next chapter. Ja ne!

~Miss Battousai Noelle~


	8. Chapter 8: The Birth of Battousai's Appr...

**Chikara Kokoro (Strength of Heart)**

By Miss Battousai Noelle 

Disclaimer: see previous chapters

Again and again and again I must apologize for this more than a month-long delay. I sincerely wish that I could say that I've been working on this, and all my other stories, but I've been so busy that I have had maybe a total of 5 minutes of free time over the past 5 weeks, which have been spent sleeping (or trying to at least). Not only have my teachers been cramming me with loads of extra homework, projects, tests, etc., but I've also had show choir/concert choir competitions every Saturday for the past 5 Saturdays (excluding yesterday). Just in case you're curious as to exactly how much time those competitions take out of my Saturdays I'll give you an example of one of my schedules from one of those days (note, this is an approximation, not all these times are exact and the times do vary per competition):

  4:00 a.m.: wake up; take a shower

  4:45 a.m.: fix my hair (hair and make-up for some days)

  5:00 a.m.: leave for school to catch the bus to go to competition

  5:15 a.m.: bus leaves

  6:00 a.m.: arrive @ contest; unload truck w/ backdrops, costumes, props, etc.

  6:15 a.m.- 5:15 p.m.: warm up, performance, watch other performances, eat lunch, etc.

  5:15 p.m.: exhibition choir performance; awards/finalists announced

  *6:00 p.m.: if we didn't make finals, we packed up, begin loading the truck

  *6:45 p.m.: finish loading truck; load buses; leave

  *7:30 p.m.: arrive back @ school, get picked up to go home

  *7:45 p.m.: arrive home, eat dinner, go to sleep

  **6:00 p.m.: if we made finals, we get our outfits on/prepare to perform

  **6:30 p.m.- 11:45 p.m.: finals performances

  **12:00 a.m. (midnight): finals awards ceremony

  **12:30 a.m.: load truck; prepare to leave

  **1:15 a.m.: leave for school

  **1:45 a.m.: arrive home, eat dinner, sleep

Luckily we only made finals once, but all the fatigue from those weekends still hasn't left me, and I'm still trying to recover my strength, and of course with my luck, of all things I've now had a horrible cold and cough for the past 4 days and can't get rid of it. It's just a miracle that we're now on spring break and that I can finally rest and work on things that I want to, such as this story. Yay! So I won't bore you anymore with the details of my life (aka: "eat, sleep, sing.")

Onto the story!

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Chapter 8: The Birth of Battousai's Apprentice 

Kenshin lightly rapped on the Western-style door to Katsura's office.

"Come in." came Katsura's swift reply.

Kenshin opened the door and entered with Kaoru who was a few inches behind.

As soon as the door was closed, Katsura stood form his chair and spoke, "Welcome back Himura, and its is pleasure to meet you Kaoru-dono." Katsura said as he gently took her hand and kissed the back of it, earning an instantaneous glare from Kenshin. Katsura noticed this and grinned, releasing Kaoru's hand. "Now now Himura, you of all people should know that I wouldn't think of trying to take any man's woman away from him."

Kenshin simply glared in response.

Katsura laughed. "Ha ha… But we'll not waste our time with this idle chat. I wish to see you both because we must decide what to do with miss Kamiya. Now, our information tells us that the Shinsengumi do indeed know that she has some value to you Himura. Consequently, we cannot let her leave our care, especially since she knows as much as she does about our operation. And apparently, separating the two of you is an issue, so I have decided that she must stay here. However, I do not wish for her to feel as if she is imprisoned here, so I have decided to allow her to work in the kitchens and as a maid here. She will also receive pay for the work she does. How does this sound to the both of you?"

Kaoru's eyes drooped at the mention of the words 'kitchen' and 'maid'. She had never had to perform any of these duties before, and wished not to. Eventually, Kenshin's voice dragged her form her thoughts, "You don't want her working in the kitchen, believe me Katsura. Unless of course you want all our meals burnt or our men all poisoned."

Kaoru stared at him in disbelief. To her dismay, Kenshin continued, "Kaoru isn't the type of woman to do house work either. None of that fit's her at all."

"Well what else do you think she could do here?" asked a slightly agitated Katsura.

"Well," continued Kenshin, "you see Katsura, during these past few months, I've been teaching her some Hiten Mitsurugi, and it is my belief that she will make an excellent fighter."

Katsura's jaw dropped. "Himura! This is madness! I can't just send a fourteen year-old girl out onto a battle field somewhere!"

"Why the hell not?" retorted Kenshin, "That's exactly what you did to me. You shoved me onto the battlefields at fourteen, and now you're going and contradicting yourself."

"Well then what the hell do you propose I have her do? Surely you don't want me to make her an assassin do you?"

"No." Kenshin replied firmly. "However, I believe that she could work with me."

"How do mean?" asked Katsura.

"Well, since she is my apprentice, I believe that she can aid me on missions and nightly rounds. That way, not only will the mission time be cut greatly, but she will also still be able to learn form me and be able to exercise her skills with the sword."

Katsura rubbed his chin, deeply considering Kenshin's idea. Kaoru nervously bit her lower lip, anxiously awaiting Katsura's response. After a few minutes of contemplating, Katsura finally spoke up, "Very well then Himura. Kaoru will work with you as your apprentice."

"Thank you Katsura." Said Kenshin.

"Yippee!" squealed a delighted Kaoru, causing both Kenshin and Katsura to jump. Kaoru laughed at them.

Finally, Katsura cleared his throat, "Ahem. Anyways, since Kaoru is going to be aiding you in combat, I think it would be wisest to not release any personal information about her, such as her family name or gender, for the sake of her life after the war."

"That's fine with me," said Kaoru, "But what am I going to called?"

"Hm… ell I suppose we shall call you by your first name around here," replied Katsura.

"Battousai's Apprentice," Kenshin interjected, "It's not very creative, but it get's to the point precisely enough, without giving any personal information away."

"I approve," said Katsura. "Now it's time for you two to run along now, I have work to do."

Kenshin and Kaoru politely bowed before leaving to return to their room.

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"Kaoru," Kenshin called as he entered their room.

Kaoru, who was sitting at the windowsill, watching the sunset, looked from the sky to him.

He continued, "Our first mission tighter is in an hour, don't forget." She sighed, "It's just patrolling; It's not like a real mission at all. And we probably won't do anything besides walking around aimlessly anyways."

"Actually Kaoru," Kenshin interjected, "I just found out that there are a large number of Shinsengumi fighters out tonight. If we're lucky we'll get to fight one or two of them."

"Good," she said, "because I'm dying to give somebody a good whack on the head."

Kenshin grinned, "You mean besides me?"

"Yup," she giggled.

Kenshin rolled his eyes, "You're impossible."

"Arigato!" came the bubbly response.

"Alright, got to sleep now and try to think happy thoughts while you can."

Kaoru giggled again, "Okay fine; but it we encounter somebody, I get to beat him up first."

"Go ahead, beat him to a bloody pulp for all I care; just don't kill him

"I'm not stupid; there's no way I'm ever gonna kill anybody, stupid.  
Kenshin reached down, grabbing a pillow and throwing it at her, sending her shrieking to the other side of the room.

"What was that for?!"

"For calling me stupid." He stated coolly.

"Well you are," she said angrily, throwing the pillow back at him.

"Am not." The pillow hit Kaoru.

"Are to." The pillow hit Kenshin.

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

Yes-"

Suddenly, the door flew open and Katsura came in seething, "What the hell are you two doing?! You're supposed to be a pair of top notch samurai, not a pair of bickering children!"

Kaoru spoke up timidly, "But Katsura, we technically still are-"

"Shut up!" was all Katsura had to say to get Kaoru to drop her statement.

After a moment of silence, Katsura spoke again in a much calmer tone "Now get ready for your patrol. I expect everything to run smoothly, so you both need to get your acts together: especially you Himura; I have never seen you act this immaturely at all during the three years that I've known you, and it is going to end here. Understood?"

:"Yes Katsura," Kenshin replied monotonously.

"Good. Now get ready," Katsura said firmly as he marched out of the room, slamming the shoji behind him.

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Sorry to cut the chapter off there, but I wanted to incorporate the next scene in the next chapter, since I think that it will make more sense that way. 

I again apologize for the extra-long delay, although I did forewarn you all in at least one or two previous chapters, I'll apologize anyways. I may possibly get the next chapter up by the end of this week, but I will make no promises.

_Preview of next chapter:_ Kenshin and Kaoru's first mission together! And I'll let everybody know that an important character from the series will have his first appearance in the upcoming chapter! Can you guess who he is?

~Until next time!

~*Miss Battousai Noelle*~


	9. Chapter 9: The First Mission

**Chikara Kokoro (Strength of Heart)**

By Miss Battousai Noelle 

Disclaimer: see previous chapters

Hello again. I don't really have any long comments today so… onto the story!

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Chapter 9: The First Mission 

The midnight streets were ghastly dark and wickedly silent as Battousai and his apprentice made their rounds around Kyoto's deserted streets.

Kaoru soon became weary of boredom.

"Kenshin," she whispered, "I can't stand this; two whole hours of being out here walking around aimlessly with no excitement at all is so _boring_!"

He replied angrily, "And _how_ many times over the past _hour and a half_ have I had to tell you to shut up or someone will know we're here?!"

"I'm sorry but I just can't help it. This is one of the most boring things I've ever done in my life. If I knew that this was going to be as boring as it is, then I wouldn't have even come."

"You would've had to come no matter what; now shut up." He retorted.

"Fine, you stupid jerk; be that way!" she turned on her heel and began walking the opposite direction. "You do what you want, and I'll do what I want: I'm gonna go find some Shinsengumi guys to beat up whether you like it or not."

"What?! Kaoru don't be an idiot! Going out on your own like that is a sure fire way to get yourself killed!"

"I don't care! You never let me do anything on my own, so I'm gonna go prove to you that I can! I'm stronger now than I was when we first met and I don't need you protecting me all the time, so that's why I wanna prove it to you. I want to be strong enough on my own so that just in case I ever lose you, I can take care of myself and the people around me."

"Kaoru…" he smiled, "Well, there's no way I can talk you out of this is there?"

She smiled in return. "Nope."

"Okay," he relented, "But you have to let me follow you at least from a distance."

"Okay, agreed."

"Agreed. Now get going, we've almost covered all the ground we need to."

"Okay. See you later!" she said as she slowly jogged off.

Kenshin shook his head as he watched her disappear into the darkness of the shadows. "She is crazy." He thought aloud as he began following her at a distance.

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After a little while, Kaoru waked into a large alley and decided to take a quick break. She leaned her back against one of the walls and gradually closed her eyes. She was just about to doze off when she heard footsteps and sensed an unfamiliar ki coming towards her. The person stopped in front of her for a moment, examining her with his eyes.

Thinking that she was asleep, the man reached his hand out to touch her when she bolted up, shoving his hand away.

"Who are you?" she asked coldly with her sapphire eyes narrowed. Kaoru took a moment to examine him: he was very tall, clad in Shinsengumi colors, black hair in the traditional ponytail; his narrow eyes shone gold in the darkness as his thin lips curled into a smirk.

"You have some skill 'pretty boy'," came his icy bass voice.

"'Pretty… boy'?! I beg your pardon!" she responded angrily.

"Oh, did I offend you in some way? My apologies." He grinned deviously.

She growled like a wolf— he was mocking her. "_That_ was too rude to forgive; maybe I need to teach you a lesson on proper _manners_."

The man looked intrigued, "Teach me a lesson, eh? Would that by any chance be a challenge?"

"If you wish it so."

He smirked. "Sounds like fun. Well, shall we introduce ourselves? I an Saito Hajime, leader of the 3rd Shinsengumi squad."

As he took his initial stance, his name struck her: he was the man that had sent people to spy on Kenshin, and he was the man that Kenshin had said may possibly be the only man able to kill him. He knew she had no chance of winning; all she could do was buy time until Kenshin caught up with her.

"Well? Are you going to introduce yourself or not?"

She cleared her throat. "I am Kaoru, apprentice to Hitokiri Battousai."

"…Battousai…" Saito whispered.

"Yes," came a voice from the roof of one of the buildings.

Kaoru and Saito both looked up to see Kenshin standing atop the roof with his blood-red hair twirling in the wind.

"There you are," said Kaoru, "I was wondering why you hadn't caught up with me yet."

Kenshin jumped from the roof and landed right next to Kaoru. Placing a hand on her shoulder, he said, "Kaoru will not be your opponent tonight Saito; I will take her place."

Saito appeared surprised, "You said… 'her' ?"

"yes I did. Kaoru is indeed a woman." Kenshin replied.

Saito smirked, "That's just about the funniest thing I've ever heard: A _woman_ who can fight. Pathetic."

Kaoru stepped forward into a flawless Battoujutsu stance, narrowing her eyes in rage, "I dare you to say that again you bastard."

Saito laughed, "Well I must say Battousai, you sure chose a very colorful girl to be your personal whore."

Now it was Kenshin's turn to be enraged by Saito's unnecessary comments: if Kenshin's eyes had been amber before, then there had  most certainly been an added flame to those amber depths. His voice, however, remained calm despite his anger, "Kaoru is my _apprentice_, just as she stated earlier; she is in no way here to provide me with anything, especially not of that sort."

"Very well then Battousai. In that case I must assume that she is the person that was traveling with you after the forest battle. Am I correct?"

"Yes."

"Hmm… well then we can't have two fighting one, so I'll just find someone for your little girlfriend to play with for a while. Oh Okita!" He called.

Out of the shadows came a small, handsome boy with smooth, dark auburn hair pulled back neatly in a ponytail.

"What is it Saito-san?" he said in a childish voice.

"If you don't mind doing so, I would like for you to keep Battousai's little apprentice here busy while I deal with her sensei."

Okita smiled, "I would be my pleasure." He turned to Kaoru and bowed politely. "Shall we?"

She nodded and bowed in return. They both stood in battle stance, staring each other down in wait of the first attack.

Eventually Kaoru lost her patience and drew her sword form its sheath, striking a deadly accurate hit, had it not been blocked. The two swords screeched and banged against one another for several minutes before they bounced off each other, sending their owners several feet apart.

Air came cascading in and out of Kaoru's lungs like a harsh ocean wave hitting the shore as Okita lunged. Kaoru countered. Metal banged together. Then something shimmery flew through the air, and stuck in a nearby wall. The object was the top half of a blade. Kenshin and Saito both looked, stunned, upon the broken blade in the hands of the victim.

"Kaoru," Kenshin whispered.

Okita stared at his katana, or rather what was left of it while Kaoru stood triumphantly, sakabato firmly in hand in position firmly at Okita's throat.

He dropped the last shard of his sword. "You've won. You may relieve me of this life now."

She slid her sword from his neck and returned it to its sheath.

Okita and Saito both stared at her in wonder.

"What?" she asked, wondering why they thought her action so strange.

"Aren't you going to kill me?" Okita asked.

"Uh, no," she said with annoyance.

"Why the hell not?" Saito said angrily, "That's what we do; when an assassin defeats someone he's supposed to kill his opponent."

She pouted, "That may very well be how _you all_ work but that is _not_ how I work. I follow my own rules. And by the way, I'm not an assassin, I just happen to work for one."

Saito and Okita's faces both contorted in confusion. Kenshin, on the other hand, grinned. "You're right about one thing Saito: she _is_ a very colorful girl. But she's a hell of a lot stronger than most _men_ out fighting, and it's because of that that I'm damn proud of her."

Saito glared at Kenshin's grinning face with the utmost hatred. "You die tonight Battousai! You and your little wench!!" he yelled as he drew his katana into Gatotsu stance. "Get out of here Okita- leave them both to me."

"Yes sir!" Okita obeyed, clearly startled by Saito's rage.

As soon as Okita left, Kaoru ducked out of the way, leaving Kenshin and Saito in their stalemate.

This time Saito was the first to strike: but Kenshin parried the blow. The pair took turns trading blocked blows. Spinning, twirling, clashing- their raining attacks were almost like some foreign dance.

Several minutes passed but neither side had landed a blow. Both, however, were beginning to show signs of breathlessness.

Attacks were raining back and forth for what seemed like an eternity until Saito's rage finally landed a hit on Kenshin's side.

Kenshin's teeth grinded together as his free hand instinctively shot to his bleeding wound.

"Kenshin!" Kaoru squeaked.

Kenshin and Saito kept their eyes locked together in hatred.

"Don't be so sentimental woman," said Saito, not breaking eye contact with Kenshin, "Battousai knows that that wound is nothing."

She didn't believe him, and instead looked to Kenshin, "Kenshin?"

"Kaoru don't be so naïve. I know this is your first official battle, but don't flip out because I have one wound," he said as he stood up straight again, releasing his grip on his wound.

"But-"

He shot off to attack Saito, "This isn't a fairy tale Kaoru… this is life!"

Metal clanged deafeningly as Kenshin's words sunk into Kaoru's mind and his blade sunk into Saito's side.

They traded blows for nearly half an hour until they were both near death and bleeding profusely from several cuts. It was driving Kaoru insane to the point that it took every ounce of her self-control to not jump in and beat Saito unconscious.

Kenshin was soon struck yet again, and this time sunk to the ground without getting back up. Saito laughed while coughing blood as he swung his sword at Kenshin's neck.

Kaoru screamed and ran, sword drawn at Saito's swinging blade. "This may not be some stupid fairy tale but as long as you try, _anyone_ can make a difference!!" she screamed as her sword lashed with Saito's the instant before it hit Kenshin's neck, sending Saito's entire sword flying through the air. An instant later she sent the dull edge of her sword into his stomache, sending him falling to the ground a few feet away. The two men both stared at her, wide-eyed.

"Kaoru, what the hell are you doing?" Kenshin managed to say.

"I'm saving your damn life, if you haven't noticed yet."

"Well stop it!"

"No!" she yelled as the palm of her hand collided with his scarred cheek.

"Kaoru…" he said softly in protest.

A single tear slid down each of her cheeks as she cupped his now red cheek in her free hand. "You know me better than anyone else alive and you should know by now that I _never_ give up on people, especially not on those that are closest to my pathetic, sentimental, woman's heart."

He let out a weak chuckle, causing her to smile.

"Alright," her expression quickly changed to serious again as she turned her back to him and kneeled down, "Can you climb onto my back?"

He cleared his throat, "I think so."

He slowly crawled onto her back, wrapping his legs around her waist and arms around her neck and shoulders.

She picked up and sheathed their swords, placing them all into her own waistband before grabbing hold of his legs and standing up. She took one last look at Saito still lying on the ground in shock, before she walked off carrying her limp lover back to the inn.

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Yay! Chapter 9 finished (finally)! Just to fill everybody in on why this chapter was so extremely late: I have two rewrites of it— in other words three versions— so it was hard to pick between the three. In the first version Kaoru's gender was never revealed to Saito and Okita and everything else was pretty much the same. In the second version her gender was revealed, but Kenshin ended up killing Saito, and since that ruined my later plans for Saito, I had to do away with that one, so version #3 is what you just read. -x So I'm pretty happy with how this chapter turned out. And I may get the next chapter out sooner than usual since there aren't any battle scenes (cuz I suck at writing battle scenes). Anyways…

until next chapter!

Miss Battousai Noelle


	10. Chapter 10: The Depths of A Heart

**Chikara Kokoro (Strength of Heart)**

By Miss Battousai Noelle 

Disclaimer: I have no money. All that I have is my dreams… and those are some _messed up_ dreams too now that I think about it… Just some thoughts from an undiagnosed crazy person, don't mind me.

Hello again. Finally, I know. If anybody out there is pissed at me for taking forever to update, **lo siento mucho**, BUT I'm in my junior year of high school and it is MURDER!! And I've also been pursuing other stuff besides just writing like my newest idea: to start a punk band! But anyways, I just want everybody to know that this chapter has taken me _forever_ to write since I didn't know exactly where I wanted to go with it. So… I guess I just hope you all like it. Peace.

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Chapter 10: The Depths of a Heart 

He slowly opened his eyes. He hoped to see light pour into them as his lids lifted, however all he could see was darkness. He sat up in the thick fog, desperately searching for any source of light.

The air was thick, humid, and smelled of blood. He moved his hands along the ground. It was wet; full of liquid an inch deep.

Suddenly the entire space illuminated itself.

He was sitting, drenched in a pool of clear, pristine water. As the world slowly became clearer to him, the pool morphed into a gentle brook with a meek waterfall gently dripping onto his silky crimson hair.

He slowly rose up, and as he did he gained a strong urge to explore this new realm. He strolled down the brook until he saw a tiny figure in the distance. As his feet increased their pace the figure slowly became more distinct. It was a child. Several more feet… It was a little boy. Closer now… He had a handsomely shaped face. Still closer… The colors of the boy's features became more vivid. Running, panting… a dead stop. He was in an absolute shock. The boy… was a mirror image of himself in his childhood. The boy smiled at him.

"Hello Kenshin, or should I say Shinta."

Kenshin was stunned for a moment. "Who… are you?"

The boy giggled, "Silly, don't you recognize yourself?"

"Wha?"

He giggled again. "I bet you're a little uncomfortable talking to yourself aren't you?"

"That's an understatement."

"How about I change into a form you'd be more comfortable with? How about this?"

The boy disappeared into a shot of colorful sparks and reappeared in the form of a woman: petite gentle, and graceful, with long flowing crimson hair and deep brown eyes.

Kenshin's eyes widened, "Mom?"

She giggled. "I'm not really your mother; just an image of her, created from your memories of her."

"Well then who are you?"

"Me? I guess you could call me your conscience, or your heart, or your soul, or whatever you want to refer to me as."

"Okay… well can you at least tell me why I'm here?"

"You already know that."

"No I don't."

"You're the one who summoned _me_."

"What are you talking about?"

She sighed, "When a person is desperately searching for answers that their head cannot find, many search their souls for those answers."

"I don't understand. I'm not searching for anything. I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes you do. That's why you're here."

"Well, could you at least tell me why I'm here?"

"No," she giggled, "But I can show you."

"Then show me."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Very well then."

The place illuminated itself for a second time. When the light faded he found himself on an empty field. Suddenly people were surrounding him from all sides, charging at him and at one another. People in battle gear and armor with swords and bows were on all sides. He ducked and dodged as swords were slashed and arrows shot in his direction until an arrow dove right through his chest and lodged itself into the man behind him. The man gasped, then began to collapse. Kenshin reached out to the man, attempting to break his fall, but he merely slipped right through Kenshin's vaporous arms.

"What?!"

He looked down at his arms, then at his chest. There was no wound where there should have been one.

"What the hell is going on?!" he screamed.

Then he saw Kaoru swooping in atop a horse. She looked angry, angrier than he'd ever seen her before. Her eyes were burning with hatred as she unsheathed her sakabato and slashed at everyone in her way. She pulled the horse right up next to him and the wounded man. She made her way to him and for the first time Kenshin noticed that the man on the ground was himself. There was a wound on his chest with an arrow sticking out of it, right where he had been struck earlier.

Her eyes filed with tears as she checked for a pulse and shook his body. More tears flowed from her eyes as she shook his form more vigorously than before. She started screaming, but her voice was blocked from his ears and all he could hear were battle sounds. Then, she grabbed her sword again, practically flew from his dead form, and slashed at the men now attacking her. She was still screaming, she was screaming as if she could never stop her vocal chords from creating their piercing noises. The fighting continued until there were only a few people left alive on the field. The last of the survivors surrounded Kaoru, swords poised in attack position. She glared defiantly at them as she charged at the nearest group. She knocked each of her opponents cold until only one was left. But when she charged at him, one of the men on the ground had woken, and took his sword and jabbed it into her back.

"KAORU!!" Kenshin screamed, tears streaming from his eyes.

The man took his sword from her abdomen and collapsed. She soon fell to her knees, clutching her stomach, glaring at the world with eyes of hatred before she fell to the ground completely.

Kenshin tried to run to her, but somehow he couldn't move. Then everything turned black.

When light finally returned to the world around him he found himself lying in the brook from before. His mother's form was leaning over him. "You okay?"

He jumped up. "What… What was that?" he said breathlessly.

"It is your greatest fear. It is what may come to pass if you do not stop being so foolish."

"How am I foolish?"

"Your desire to make this world a better place. That is what is so foolish."

"How is that foolish?"

"It is foolish because of how you plan to accomplish that dream."

"How?"  
"By being a hitokiri."

"I don't understand."

"You think that you are doing what is right, you attempt to comfort yourself with the thought that the people you kill are all dying for a just and moral reason and yet you forget that your victims are people too. You live in a false sense of comfort everyday. The only real thing that you have is Kaoru."

"…Kaoru…" he whispered.

"She is blinded by her love for you. She is willing to give up every part of her being for you; she knows what you are, and yet she allows herself to stay by your side. She despises your actions, doesn't believe your excuses, and ignores her own conscience, but still holds onto you."

"…I know…"

"She suffers because of you. But she stays for a reason."

"What is it?"

"She stays because she believes."

"What does she believe?"

"She believes that you can change, that you can become something more, something better, with her help."

"But how can she do that?"

"You have to let her."

"What?"

"Stop hiding from her, listen to her when she speaks, show her that you care more than you let on, let her know how much she means to you, and allow her a say in things."

"But she doesn't normally argue."

"Then you must ask her to make some of the decisions."

"I guess…you're right."

His mother's form transformed again, this time into a spitting image of his current self.

"So do you finally get it?"

"I think so… just one more question."

"What is it?"

"Kaoru… can we ever have a real life together? A life without violence and war everywhere we turn? A life… where we can be happy?"

"That is up to her; if she can change you for the better and if she is willing to hold on to you long enough, then it is possible."

"Okay."

He looked at the running water beneath him then slowly closed his eyes and darkness consumed him again.

When he came to he could hear a gentle voice singing a song he'd never heard before. He opened his eyes. Kaoru was standing at a window sill, folding bed sheets and other linens. He smiled then said, "Kaoru." Her singing stopped and she dropped the towel she was folding to turn around and look at his face. She saw his open eyes and instantaneously rushed to his bedside and clasped his hands in her own.

"You're awake! You're finally awake! Oh Kenshin, never ever worry me like that again!" She said as she laid her head next to his on the pillow."

He moved his hand to run his fingers through her ponytail, still smiling. "Yeah… I'm sorry to worry you. And I plan to never do it again."

She giggled and moved her arms so that she could hug him. "Thank you for coming back to me."

"You're welcome. And I suppose that I'll just have to keep coming back to you if I ever go astray again won't I?"

"Darn right, 'cause if you don't I'll find you and beat you to a pulp."

He chuckled and kissed her forehead. "Well, I think I'll rest just a bit longer. And try not to go too far okay?"

"Okay." she said as she lifted her head and smiled at him.

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Phew! That's done! I felt like some deep stuff instead of just pure fluff for a change. Hope you enjoyed and Happy Christmas to all!


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